Tavatanakit routed the field at Riyadh Golf Club, winning by seven shots.
Her three-year wait is over.
Patty Tavatanakit shot a final-round 65 on Sunday to win the 2024 Aramco Saudi Ladies International for her first individual victory since she won the 2021 Chevron Championship. She routed the field at Riyadh Golf Club, winning by seven shots.
Tavatanakit was part of the winning Team Thailand at the 2023 Hanwha Lifeplus International Crown, where each team had four players but Sunday marks her first individual title since winning at Mission Hills Country Club, which closed the chapter on the long-standing women’s major in the California desert.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve played this good,” Tavatanakit said. “It’s very emotional, I’m very emotional right now with how I have overcome that and looking back it was just one day at a time, keep working hard.”
Those emotions showed on the 18th hole after she putted out.
Esther Henseleit finished shot a 69 to earn solo second. Minami Katsu and Charley Hull tied for third.
Backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, the Aramco event has a purse of $5 million, which is the same as the men’s Saudi International.
In addition to this event, the 2024 Ladies European Tour schedule also features the Aramco Team Series, comprised of five events staged across the globe. The LET’s Saudi-backed events remain controversial given the wide-ranging human rights abuses Saudi Arabia has been accused of, especially toward women.
If Tavatanakit holds on to win, it would be her first title in more than three years.
Patty Tavatanakit shot 3-under 69 on Saturday at Riyadh Golf Club in Saudi Arabia, continuing to hold on to her lead at the 2024 Aramco Saudi Ladies International.
She has led after every round of the tournament, and sitting at 11 under following three rounds, she had a three-shot advantage heading to the final round.
“Overall, I was pleased with the mentality out there,” Tavatanakit said. “I feel like I had a really good mindset with how the round started. It was just kind of slow. I feel like I didn’t miss-hit a shot today. But on one hole, I went over the green, I just hit it too good.”
Germany’s Esther Henseleit is in second at 8 under after a stellar 7-under 65 on Saturday. The 25-year-old, who won the 2019 LET Order of Merit and Rookie of the Year titles, has improved each day after a round of 74 and 69 the first two days.
Charley Hull is in third at 7 under, tied with Emily Kristine Pedersen.
If Tavatanakit holds on to win, it would be her first title in more than three years.
Shannon Tan made history on when she became the first player from Singapore to win on the Ladies European Tour.
Shannon Tan made history on Sunday when she became the first player from Singapore to win on the Ladies European Tour at the 2024 Magical Kenya Ladies Open.
The 19-year-old received a unique bronzed giraffe trophy for her efforts, fitting given that the stunning creatures caused a delay in play as two rescue giraffes made their way down the 18th fairway.
The PGA Baobab Course is situated in the Vipingo Ridge, a 2,500-acre sanctuary that, since 2020, has worked with the Kenya Wildlife Services to develop a rescue and breeding program to return larger herbivore species to the area, according to its website. In addition to three rescue baby giraffes, there are zebra, impala, eland, oryx and waterbuck on the grounds.
Play was interrupted at the Magical Kenya Ladies Open for the most amazing reason 😍🦒 pic.twitter.com/FAjbNavmYu
In addition to the greens crew, there are 11 park rangers to monitor and protect the animals.
As for Tan, she earned her LET card last December as an amateur and won her first start on the LET as a pro. Tan also won the Singapore Ladies Masters on the China LPGA Tour last July.
Tan closed with a 70 to win by four strokes over Italy’s Alassandra Fanali.
“It was a tough decision to begin with,” said Tan of turning professional, “but I’m glad I made it now. It’s a good thing because juniors back home know it’s possible and that anything is possible, and it can push them a little bit and inspire them.”
Golf’s future still holds more questions than answers.
Last November, LET players met at the tour’s season-ending event to vote on a potential merge with the LPGA. Soon after gathering in Spain, however, leadership said there would be no vote. The LET Board adjourned the meeting without explanation.
Earlier this month, LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan sent a letter to players that shined a bit of light on what happened. In the letter, obtained by Golfweek, Marcoux Samaan confirmed that Golf Saudi submitted a last-minute request for further information on the proposed operating model of the tour following any potential transaction.
“As a significant partner of the LET,” Marcoux Samaan wrote, “Golf Saudi wanted to ensure that they fully understood any risks, implications, and opportunities for the Aramco Saudi Ladies International and Aramco Team Series before finalizing their commitment to the events in 2024.”
The loss of Aramco would be devastating to the LET given that its $10 million in prize funds account for nearly one-third of the tour’s combined purse.
Of course, this was no last-minute vote. In fact, a vote on a merger between the two tours was expected to happen in late 2022. The vote kept getting pushed back as the two tours continued to work on terms.
As part of the merger, the top four LET players at the end of the 2024 season would receive LPGA cards for 2025. At a player meeting on Tuesday at the LPGA Drive On Championship, Golfweek has learned that the commissioner confirmed that there would be no cards available for the LET next year.
The commissioner’s letter went on to describe discussions with Golf Saudi as “constructive and collaborative,” noting the presence of the five Aramco Team Series events on the 2024 schedule, each with $1 million purses, as well as the $5 million Aramco Saudi Ladies International next month.
Nelly Korda poses with the trophy after winning the Individual title at the 2023 Aramco Team Series presented by PIF – London. (Photo: LET)
Golf Saudi’s plans in the women’s golf space beyond its current presence on the LET remain uncertain, but its power to stop a merger vote is quite clear.
With the vote now postponed indefinitely, Marcoux Samaan told players the two tours have decided to focus on maximizing their joint venture partnership, which first came together in November 2019 under the leadership of former LPGA commissioner Mike Whan and has two years left on the contract.
What’s still squarely in the middle of all of this, of course, are the question marks that surround doing business with the Saudis. The Aramco events remain controversial given the wide-ranging human rights abuses Saudi Arabia has been accused of, especially toward women.
As it currently stands, the LPGA can somewhat distance itself from Aramco while being part of an alliance. But should the LET fall completely under the umbrella of the LPGA, some observers question if existing and future LPGA sponsors might choose to distance themselves from the LPGA because of Aramco’s large presence. And, if so, how many?
On the other hand, LET players might wonder how much the LPGA could hold them back from bigger purses at Aramco events. Could the PIF pump so much money into the LET that it one day becomes the LPGA’s rival?
The flip side to that, of course, is that the LET becomes so dependent on Saudi money that it couldn’t survive without it. And there’s no telling how long the Saudis will want to remain so heavily invested in women’s golf.
And what if Aramco events eventually find their way onto the LPGA’s official schedule?
Golf’s future still holds more questions than answers.
Two weeks after Nataliya Guseva earned her LPGA card at Q-Series, the Russian-born player headed to Morocco on a quest for Ladies European Tour status. Guseva didn’t just earn a second tour card, she dominated the field, winning the 2024 Lalla Aicha Q-School by four shots.
Guseva, 20, closed with a 69 to finish at 23-under 340 over five rounds. A winner on the Epson Tour in 2023 at the Black Desert Resort Championship, Guseva became the first player from Russia to earn LPGA status on Dec. 5 when she tied for 23rd at LPGA Q-Series.
“It’s amazing,” said Guseva, who played collegiate golf at the Univeristy of Miami. “It’s crazy that I came here already with my LPGA tour card and then just coming here and winning LET Q-School, it’s something I have always dreamed of.”
The Russian flag does not appear by Guseva’s name on the LPGA and LET websites because of International Olympic Committee guidelines. At the 2024 Olympics in Paris, individuals who qualify from Russia will compete as neutral athletes. No flag, anthem or colors from Russia will be displayed at the Games.
Maria Verchenova, the first Russian to earn LET status, competed in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, carding a course-record 62 before ultimately finishing tied for 16th.
A total of 22 players earned Category 12 membership status on the LET for 2024, while 30 players clinched Category 16 membership.
South Africa’s Cara Gorlei finished second at 19 under while Thailand’s Aunchisa Utama placed solo third.
Amateur Annabell Fuller, a fifth-year senior at the University of Florida, took a share of fifth while Texas Techs’ Shannon Tan of Singapore tied for eighth.
Spain’s Teresa Toscano made a tremendous final-round statement with a closing 64 to finish tied for 10th.
“I wasn’t driven in the same way some of the other ladies are on tour.”
Natalie Srinivasan’s greatest strength as a golfer was her mind. She had an uncanny ability to block things out, to the point that Furman coach Jeff Hull would come up and ask, “Are you alive? Can I check your pulse?”
“When I started to lose that mind control,” she said, “that’s when I knew I couldn’t do this. The passion wasn’t there.”
Srinivasan finished out the 2022 season on the Epson Tour in October and began studying for the Medical College Admission Test in November. Her clubs still haven’t made it out of the travel case, but she was recently accepted into the Medical University of South Carolina College of Medicine, where she will start school next fall.
Srinivasan follows the footsteps of not only her father, but of two other former Epson Tour players who are already in medical school: August Kim and Janet Mao.
“I think the three of us will always have a special bond,” said Srinivasan.
The pipeline continues on with Dylan Kim (no relation), a former standout at Baylor and Arkansas, who is currently in the process of studying for the MCAT, and Jaclyn Lee, an Ohio State grad and LPGA player who is in the process of making the switch to med school.
Kim, a former Big Ten conference champion who played for Purdue, has already been president of her class at Vanderbilt School of Medicine. The 28-year-old wants to study orthopedic surgery so that she can work with athletes. Kim’s younger sister, Auston, recently graduated from the Epson Tour and earned an LPGA card. The pair spent five months together as touring pros before August shifted gears to medicine, which has always been her long-term goal.
Mao, a neuroscience major at Northwestern who won NCAA regionals in 2016, quit playing golf competitively in 2021 so that she could begin the 18-month process of getting into medical school. The average applicant applies to 20 schools, Mao said, and Northwestern graduates average around 25 applications. That’s about where Mao landed, who pumped out essays for two months straight.
Mao was accepted to Emory, where her father is a research scientist, last fall and began an intense week of shadowing, “Week on the Wards,” in mid-July. Mao isn’t quite sure what kind of medicine she wants to specialize in, but she does plan to graduate in 2028 with an M.D. and a master’s degree in public health.
Mao said of the 141 people in her class, 90 percent are non-traditional students, or people like her who have taken time to do different things after undergrad. Mao hopes that young golfers with a dream of studying medicine will see that it’s possible to keep that dream alive – and study in the sciences – while playing Division I college golf.
“Don’t shy away from it,” Mao said.
Janet Mao poses with her family at Emory’s White Coat Ceremony. (courtesy photo)
All three of these elite college players had med school in mind when they were recruited to play college golf. Kim knew she’d found a good fit when she walked into the science wing at Purdue and saw the copper bust of a Nobel Prize winner in chemistry.
“It was the perfect mix,” said Kim, who studied biochemistry.
Mao went to Northwestern as a premed major and developed a desire to play golf professionally while in college. As a child, her father would fuel her curiosity in the sciences with questions like “Why do you think the leaves are changing colors?” He’d also take her to work.
“He’d put me in the MRI scanner,” said Mao of her early interest in medicine.
While Mao was competing on the Epson Tour, she took advantage of a service that was offered called Next Play Coaching. The one-hour sessions were designed to help players reassess their values and goals and release anxiety about the future.
Mao found a deeper passion for the game in college than she’d felt in junior golf and thought she should give the professional ranks a try. While she did enjoy aspects of tour life, Mao realized that she was playing to prove something to herself and to others, and that pressure was weighing her down.
“I wasn’t playing to become the best in the world one day,” she said. “I wasn’t driven in the same way some of the other ladies are on tour.”
Srinivasan’s father, Ajai, graduated from MUSC in 1996, and Natalie is proud to follow his lead. Ajai, a general surgeon in Spartanburg, South Carolina, played high-level tennis in India before moving to the U.S. for college.
Juli Inkster, Taylor Totland, Natalie Srinivasan and Pat Hurst during the Inkster Senior Award retreat. (Photo: Natalie Srinivasan)
Natalie was the kid in the seventh grade who enjoyed dissecting the frog while many of her friends were grossed out. Like Mao, it wasn’t until college that Srinivasan decided to give professional golf a shot, especially after a senior year that, while cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic, saw her win the 2020 ANNIKA Award, PING WGCA National Player of the Year and the inaugural Juli Inkster Senior Award, which comes with a two-day retreat with the Hall of Famer player.
“Juli has taken me in like one of her own,” said Srinivasan of the down-to-earth legend who helped with caddies, courses and her transition to life after golf.
“She just wanted me to be happy.”
It took Srinivasan some time before she could admit out loud that she didn’t want to play golf anymore. The solitary life of professional golf, which demands the athlete put herself first to succeed, didn’t mesh with Srinivasan’s personality. She missed her Furman teammates and the idea of playing for something bigger than herself.
One week after Alison Lee lost in a playoff on the LPGA, she ran laps around the field in Riyadh.
One week after Alison Lee lost in a playoff on the LPGA, she ran laps around the field in Saudi Arabia. Lee shot a mind-boggling 61-61-65 at the Ladies European Tour’s Aramco Team Series event at Riyadh Golf Club.
Lee smashed the LET’s 36-hole scoring record by six shots with her 22-under total.
She went on to beat the field by eight shots, finishing at 29-under 187, which matches the tour’s tournament scoring record. Spain’s Carlota Ciganda, the recent hero of the Solheim Cup, finished solo second after rounds of 65-63-67. Charley Hull finished third at 18 under.
“I made a lot of really good putts,” said Lee of her opening brilliance. “Statistically [this season], driver, greens-in-regulation, everything’s been really good. But I just haven’t been able to get that confidence in the putter and that’s been the biggest thing.”
𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗥 𝗜𝗡 𝗥𝗜𝗬𝗔𝗗𝗛 🌟@alisonlee wins the @Aramco_Series in Riyadh & equals the LET low tournament scoring record on -29 🏆
On the LPGA, the American Lee lost in overtime last Sunday to Australia’s Minjee Lee at the BMW Ladies Championship. Alison has two other top-10 finishes on the LPGA this season.
Alison’s first professional victory came at the 2021 Aramco event at Sotogrande. A former No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, the 28-year-old former UCLA student turned professional in 2014 after winning the final stage of LPGA Q-School.
Lilia Vu, a two-time major winner who currently ranks No. 1 in the world, finished eighth in Saudi Arabia. Minjee placed sixth.
The LET’s Saudi-backed events remain controversial given the wide-ranging human rights abuses Saudi Arabia has been accused of, especially toward women.
“But yeah, like I said I’m really happy with my round.”
Alison Lee has had a record-setting start at the Aramco Team Series Riyadh in Saudi Arabia on the Ladies European Tour.
Lee, the 28-year-old American, finished second last week at the LPGA’s BMW Ladies Championship in Korea. This week, she’s well on her way to hoisting a trophy after posting consecutive 61s at Riyadh Golf Club.
With a 36-hole score of 22 under, Lee smashed the previous two-day tally set by Gwladys Nocera (2008 Goteborg Masters), Kylie Henry (2014 Ladies German Open), Anne van Dam (2018 Estralla Damm Ladies Open) and Emily Kristine Pedersen (2020 Tipsport Czech Ladies Open), which stood at 16-under. Her 61s match the lowest round in LET history, and in the opening round, she set a new record with eight consecutive birdies.
“If you told me at the beginning of the week I was going to shoot 22 under after two days I wouldn’t have believed you,” Lee said. “So I’m really happy with where I am right now. I made a lot of really good putts. Statistically [this season], driver, greens-in-regulation, everything’s been really good. But I just haven’t been able to get that confidence in the putter and that’s been the biggest thing.
“[But] this week I feel really good, the speed has been great. I’ve been able to putt very aggressively, especially out here which you need [to do] if you want to make birdies. I wish I could give you an answer as to why. I’ve been working really hard with my putting coach back home.”
Lee had a putt for 60 on the closing hole, but her birdie attempt came up just short. However, a tap-in for 61 and a six-shot lead over Carlota Ciganda made for the best 36-hole stretch of her career.
“With five holes left, I kind of knew right then and there, ‘OK, let’s try and make a charge here,'” Lee continued. “Unfortunately, I left my putt short on 16, so I was a little disappointed. And it was a tricky putt I had [on 18]. I had to take it out pretty far to the left and let it break.
“But yeah, like I said I’m really happy with my round.”
An unfortunate turn of events may have contributed to Anne Van Dam’s demise at the KPMG Women’s Irish Open.
An unfortunate turn of events may have contributed to Anne van Dam’s demise at the KPMG Women’s Irish Open, which wrapped up on Sunday.
While heading to the first playoff hole via cart, van Dam and a Ladies European Tour official tried to get under a rope, but it caught her driver and snapped it immediately as the bag was forced to the ground. And van Dam was set to square off with Denmark’s Smilla Tarning Soenderby and Sweden’s Lisa Pettersson in the playoff after all three finished at 16 under for the tournament.
Unfortunately, this was van Dam’s backup driver as her main driver was damaged during a flight to Ireland.
Since she couldn’t get a replacement, van Dam hit 3-wood on the first playoff hole, and although she got home in two on the par-5, she missed an eagle putt. Meanwhile, Soenderby knocked her approach to 12 feet and dropped her putt to take her first title.
Although van Dam has five wins on the LET, but hasn’t found the winner’s circle since the Spanish Women’s Open in 2019.
Both Pano and Brown were first-time winners at the joint women’s and men’s event in Northern Ireland.
Alexa Pano got her first LPGA win for her birthday.
The teenage phenom turned 19 on Sunday and picked up a hard-earned victory at the 2023 ISPS Handa World Invitational at Galgorm Castle Golf club in Antrim, Northern Ireland.
Pano took down both Esther Henseleit and Gabriella Cowley – who all finished regulation at 8 under – in a three-way, three-hole playoff. Henseleit was eliminated first with a bogey on the par-5 18th. Pano and Cowley made par to force a third playing of No. 18, where Pano won with birdie.
“Gosh, this is so surreal. I mean, I still haven’t processed it,” said Pano after the round. “I couldn’t process it on 18 green, but still, kind of sinking in right now. Just so cool.”
“Yeah, definitely was not conservative at all today,” said Pano. “I struggled a little bit off the tee, but other than that I was able to be aggressive. Luckily my putter was hot today, so that was helpful.”
Pano shot a 6-under 66 in the final round and forced a playoff with a pair of birdies on Nos. 17 and 18 after a late bogey on the par-4 16th. The Florida native didn’t know the situation on the leaderboard until someone on No. 17 made a comment.
“He was like, ‘shouldn’t have made bogey there.’ Kind of rude, but it motivated me to make two birdies back-to-back,” said Pano. “And so I did know going into 17, but that’s the only reason why. Those back-to-back birdies I knew I had to do, and luckily I did.”
After she earned her card for the season via LPGA Q-Series, Pano has made just five cuts in her rookie year, with one top-20 finish in addition to her win in 12 starts. She’s the third rookie to win this season and one of eight first-time winners on the season.
“Yeah, that’s pretty cool,” Pano said of the fact that she’s the youngest winner of the season at 19. “Was almost 18 but I guess I’m just better at 19.”
Before skipping college to turn professional, Pano had a decorated junior golf career and was a three-time Drive, Chip and Putt national finalist and the youngest player in the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur. She also featured in the 2012 Netflix documentary, The Short Game.
The ISPS Handa World Invitational is a unique event on the schedule as it features two competitions being held at the same time with 144 women and 144 men playing for $1.5 million in prize money.
On the men’s side, Daniel Brown ran away with a five-shot victory to claim his first victory in just his 20th start. Brown had just three top-10 starts entering the week, with a best finish of T-5 in March at the South African Open.
“It feels amazing. I could never have dreamed this up in the past however many years and months,” said Brown. “(My mom was) blubbering down the phone. I’m over the moon, but it probably hasn’t sunk in yet. I don’t know. I almost still feel like someone’s going to crop up and say there’s another day left or something. Crazy.”
Brown took the lead on Thursday with a 6-under 64 and cruised to victory in the final round with a 1-under 69. Alex Fitzpatrick (68) finished second at 10 under, with Eddie Pepperell (68) in third at 7 under.
Unique event not on future schedule
This event, which showcases LPGA, LET and DP World Tour players, is not on the 2024 DP World Tour schedule, which was released last week.
Organizers told BBC Sport there are plans for another big event in the region, but the mixed format – in which male and female players compete for the same size purse – will not be extended.
