A short while after Li eagled the par-5 18th hole, Jasmine Suwannapura eagled it herself to shoot a 61 and get to 17 under to tie for the lead at Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers, Arkansas.
The duo then dueled in extra holes, and on the second playoff hole, Suwannapura hit an amazing second shot that found the back of the green before rolling back to about 12 feet.
She then made the putt for yet another eagle on the par-5 18th, but this one was the clincher.
Suwannapura is the fifth player from Thailand to win on the LPGA in 2024, joining Moriya Jutanugarn (Portland Classic), Patty Tavatanakit (Honda LPGA Thailand), Jeeno Thitikul (Dow Championship) and Chanettee Wannasaen (Dana Open). Suwannapura is the 18th different winner on the LPGA this season.
Li made her third eagle of the round on the par-5 closing hole.
Lucy Li was even through six holes Sunday at Pinnacle Country Club during the final round of the LPGA’s Walmart NW Arkansas Championship. Then she started making her move.
She birdied No. 7, holed out for eagle on the par-4 eighth, birdied the ninth to make the turn in 32. Back-to-back birdies on Nos. 10 and 11 got her to 12 under and then after a pair of pars, she made her second eagle of the day with a 3 on the par-5 14th. Another birdie on the 15th got her to 15 under and take the outright lead.
On 18, Li made her third eagle of the round on the par-5 closing hole by draining a 30-foot putt to fire a final-round 60 and take the clubhouse lead at 17 under.
There are more than 20 rookies in the filed at Superstition Mountain in Arizona.
Lucy Li and Alexa Pano have competed in a combined 22 LPGA events before teeing it up this week for the first time as LPGA members at the 2023 Drive On Championship. Sandwiched in between them at a pre-tournament presser sat Ellinor Sudow, a Swedish player who didn’t even seriously consider the LPGA until she got to college. This week marks her first LPGA start.
Of the 31 LPGA rookies this season, 23 are in the field this week for the first full-field domestic tournament. Li, who earned her card by finishing in the top 10 on the Epson Tour last season, hasn’t teed it up in an LPGA event since last October. Both Sudow and Pano qualified through Q-Series.
In between practice, Li, 20, got cranking on her schoolwork at the University of Pennsylvania. She will soon declare a double major in data analytics and psychology. Both 18-year-old Pano and Li turned professional out of high school.
“I’m taking one course now and pretty much just started my junior year in college,” said Li, “so I got a lot of good work done.”
Pano, who gained fame when she appeared in the Netflix documentary “The Short Game,” tied for 32nd at the LET’s Aramco Saudi Ladies International in February and then recently played two events on the Epson Tour. Pano made her first start on the LPGA in 2018 at the Thornberry Creek LPGA Classic. She’s made the cut once in eight starts.
“It kind of feels like I’ve been working towards this for a really long time,” said Pano, “so been a very long time coming.”
While Pano and Li made headlines as pre-teens, Sudow took up golf rather late in life and never qualified for the Swedish National Team. After playing collegiately at UNC Charlotte and later Arizona for graduate work, Sudow signed up for qualifying school hoping to get Epson Tour status and wound up with an LPGA card.
“I was super stoked to be here yesterday,” said Sudow, “just coming down the range for the first time, see all the players and having Nelly (Korda) behind me and all that cool stuff.”
When asked about goals for the season, Pano talked about having an open mind and learning. Li echoed similar thoughts and talked about focusing on her process.
Sudow, however, didn’t hold back.
“I think we’re stupid if we don’t say we want to be Rookie of the Year and win a tournament,” said Sudow. “That’s why we’re here. We’re here to compete. That would be really cool to me. I usually set really lofty goals.
“I don’t know if they’re realistic, but that’s the dream and what we’re aiming for.”
Here are several LPGA rookies making their tour debut this week:
It’s not often that an LPGA rookie rises to No. 1 in the world, but Atthaya Thitikul proved to be a special player last season. Will anyone be able to make such a strong showing in 2023?
This year’s rookie class is once again highly global. In fact, an American hasn’t won the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year Award since Paula Creamer in 2005.
There are, however, a couple of American hotshots who made headlines before they graduated from elementary school in the 2023 rookie class. Could Lucy Li or Alexa Pano break that drought?
Here are a dozen LPGA rookies to keep an eye on in 2023:
The top 10 players on the Ascensus Race for the Card earned LPGA status for the 2023 season.
Hyo Joon Jang, a 19-year-old rookie from South Korea, entered the Epson Tour Championship ranked 11th on the money list with $74,202, just $1,076 behind No. 10 Alexa Pano. Jang’s T-11 finish was enough to push her into the 10th spot, forcing Pano to head to Q-Series to earn her LPGA card.
The top 10 players on the Ascensus Race for the Card earned LPGA status for the 2023 season. The top three players – Linnea Strom, Xiaowen Yin and Lucy Li – had their cards locked up coming into Daytona Beach, Florida.
For the second time in three years, Bailey Tardy missed her card by one spot. In 2020, Tardy missed her card by $343. She held the lead on Sunday at the Tour Championship on the strength of five birdies in six holes on the front nine. A back-nine 37, however, dropped her down to third place. This time, the former Georgia standout missed the 10th spot by $1,765.
Jaravee Boonchant birdied the 18th to win her first Epson Tour title at LPGA International and moved up to 12th on the money list. While it wasn’t enough to earn her LPGA card, the former Duke player will get to skip the second stage of Q-School.
Find out more about the card winners for the 2022 Epson Tour season:
“An out-of-reach goal is maybe getting into the Solheim Cup next year, if I play well enough.”
Lucy Li only had one practice round last week at the Dana Open and still managed to hold the lead going into Sunday. Li, 19, doesn’t have status on the LPGA, but for a second week in a row, she has parlayed a top-10 performance into another start.
This time at the inaugural Kroger Queen City Championship, Li will tee it up Thursday without having played a single hole at Cincinnati’s Kenwood Country Club. Heavy downpours and lightning closed the course multiple times early week, and Lee was only able to walk it on Tuesday without her clubs.
“It is a very, beautiful, beautiful golf course, very classic,” said Li. “We have the trees and the rough and the bunkers. … not many expectations going in there tomorrow.”
Li’s two summer victories on the Epson Tour wrapped up her LPGA card for 2023. This week marks her fourth consecutive start on the LPGA, dating back to the ISPS Handa World Invitational in Northern Ireland, which she played on a sponsor exemption. She has finished T-27, T-9 and T-4 in her last three LPGA starts.
Lucy Li plays her tee shot on the 16th hole during the second round of the 77th U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club in Southern Pines, North Carolina. (Photo: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
In addition to her play on two separate tours, Li also takes online courses at the University of Pennsylvania. The former prodigy and now Ivy Leaguer who once counted the late Mickey Wright among her mentors, also has a sponsor invite to next week’s AmazingCre Portland Classic.
“My goal after I locked up my card was to try to get as many starts out here as I could,” said Li, “kind of get myself prepared for next year, work on my world ranking.”
While Li can’t earn CME points as a non-member, she can improve her Rolex Rankings position, which helps move her toward another goal.
“Fingers crossed,” said Li, “kind of like long-term … more of an out-of-reach goal is maybe getting into the Solheim Cup next year, if I play well enough.”
Li, who made headlines around the world by qualifying for the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open at age 11, can’t begin earning Solheim Cup points until she becomes a member of the tour, but points are doubled starting in 2023. She can also play her way onto the team via the Rolex Rankings.
Back in March, Li ranked as low as 291st in the world, but jumped to 125th after last week’s share of fourth.
At the Dana Open, 2023 Solheim Cup captain Stacy Lewis told Golfweek that she believes “there’s going to be some opportunities for younger players to get in the mix.” Lewis then rattled off four would-be rookies: Andrea Lee, Allisen Corpuz, Lilia Vu and Li.
“I’d say those four are probably four to watch, I think,” Lewis said.
The top seven players on the points list will be picked to represent the U.S. in Spain next fall. Vu currently ranks seventh in points while Lee is 11th and Corpuz is 14th.
Li, who turns 20 on Oct. 1, competed on the U.S. Curtis Cup team in 2018. She earned 3 ½ points in the American rout.
Lucy Li didn’t win this week in Ohio, but she did play her way into another event LPGA event.
Lucy Li didn’t win in Ohio, but she did play her way into another LPGA event three and a half hours south in Cincinnati.
Li, 19, held the lead at an LPGA event for the first time over the weekend at the Dana Open in Sylvania, Ohio, and played in the last group at Highland Meadows Golf Club. A closing 70 dropped her into a share of fourth, three strokes back of winner Gaby Lopez.
“It was exciting,” said Li. “I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I would be, which was good.”
The former prodigy made headlines in 2014 at Pinehurst No. 2 when she became the youngest to ever qualify for a U.S. Women’s Open at age 11. A two-time winner on the Epson Tour this season, Li leads the developmental circuit in scoring, money and is second in greens in regulation. She has already shored up LPGA status for the 2023 season.
The LPGA recently changed a rule to now allow non-members who finish in the top 10 in designated events to tee it up the next week. The PGA Tour has a similar rule.
Previously, the LPGA only held two spots for top-10 finishers who were members.
Li competed in last week’s CP Women’s Open in Canada on a sponsor exemption, and her top-10 performance there got her into the field at the Dana Open. She played only one practice round at Highland Meadows before getting right into the mix.
Li has won twice on the Epson Tour this year and locked up her 2023 LPGA card.
Lucy Li wouldn’t be the youngest player to ever win on the LPGA, but if she goes on to win the Dana Open at Highland Meadows Golf Club in Sylvania, Ohio, it’d be one of the great accomplishments in the tour’s history.
Li birdied the 17th hole Saturday to regain the solo lead over Lexi Thompson and will enter the final round one ahead of the woman who owns the honor of the second-youngest player to win on the LPGA. Thompson won the 2011 Navistar LPGA Classic when she was 16 years, 7 months and 8 days old.
Lydia Ko is the youngest player to win, as she won the 2012 Canadian Women’s Open at 15 years, 4 months and 3 days.
The 19-year-old used a second-round 7-under 64 to jump to the top of the leaderboard and followed it up with a Saturday 67. She was 2 over through seven holes but cashed in six birdies in her last 11.
She has won twice on the Epson Tour this year and locked up her 2023 LPGA card.
Ko had the round of the day, using seven birdies and an eagle to shoot a 7-under 64 and sits 11 under for the event and tied for fourth. She’s tied with six others at that mark including Sei Young Kim, Leona Maguire and Nasa Hataoka.
Now Lucy Li has her sights set on her biggest accomplishment to date.
Li, 19, shot a 7-under 64 Friday at Highland Meadows Golf Club to get to 10 under and a two-shot lead after 36 holes in Sylvania, Ohio, the Dana Open.
She burst onto the golf scene in 2014 when she became the youngest player to qualify for the U.S. Women’s Open at age 11. She turned professional at age 17, and has played the last three seasons on the Epson Tour.
Carlota Ciganda and Ruoning Yin each fired 69s and are tied for second at 8 under, two shots back.
A year ago, the tournament known as the Marathon LPGA Classic was shortened to 54 holes to due heavy rain which made the course unplayable. Nasa Hataoka was up six shots after three rounds and was named the winner. On Friday, Hataoka shot a 66 and is in a five-way tie for fourth along with Lexi Thompson.
Two new moms were playing this week. Azahara Munoz shot a 69 to make the cut on the number at 1 under. Paula Creamer also shot a Friday 69 but it wasn’t enough to overcome her first-round 77. She finished 4 over.
The event is a co-sanctioned event between the DP World Tour, Ladies European Tour and LPGA.
Leona Maguire will compete in front of Irish fans at an LPGA event for the first time since becoming the first Irishwoman to win on tour last February at the LPGA Drive On Championship. The president of Ireland called her after the historic moment.
The 27-year-old Maguire is the highest-ranked player in the field at the ISPS Handa World Invitational after moving up to No. 17 following her T-4 finish at the AIG Women’s British Open, the best major finish of her career.
The ISPS Handa World Invitational is a co-sanctioned event between the DP World Tour, Ladies European Tour and LPGA. There will be 132 men and 132 women competing in two separate 72-hole stroke play tournaments (one for men and one for women) at the Galgorm Castle and Massereene Golf Club in Ballymena, Northern Ireland. For the first two rounds, all players will play one round on each course.
The total purse of $3 million will be split evenly between the men and women at $1.5 million each.
Here are six LPGA players to watch this week in Northern Ireland:
