PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Thailand’s Natthakritta Vongtaveelap was disqualified from the first round of the 78th U.S. Women’s Open after her caddie, Jinsup Kim, used a distance-measuring device on multiple holes.
Vongtaveelap, a promising 20-year-old rookie from Thailand, was even par through five holes at Pebble Beach Golf Links and competing in her first U.S. Women’s Open on Thursday.
The USGA released a statement that read:
“During the first round, on multiple occasions, the caddie for Natthakritta Vongtaveelap used a distance measuring device, which is not allowed in the U.S. Women’s Open. The first breach is a general penalty, and the second breach resulted in disqualification.”
Distance measuring devices were allowed at the recent KPMG Women’s PGA at Baltusrol. The only places on tour they are not allowed are here at the U.S. Women’s Open and the AIG Women’s British Open.
After two rounds of the LPGA’s Lotte Championship at Hoakalei Country Club in Ewa Beach, Oahu, Hawaii, Yu Jin Sung and Natthakritta Vongtaveelap are tied for the lead at 8 under.
Sung has opened her week with back-to-back 68s while Vongtaveelap followed up her Thursday 66 with a Friday 70.
Georgia Hall, who is ranked second in the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings, is tied for third alongside Linnea Storm. Hall couldn’t get much going on Thursday, opening the Lotte Championship with a 1-under 71. She played nicely on Day 2, however, signing for a 6-under 66.
Christina Kim, Grace Kim and Nasa Hataoka are tied for fifth at 6 under while Lauren Hartlage is 5 under and in solo eighth. Siyun Liu and Pernilla Lindberg round out the top 10 at 4 under, T-9.
Frida Kinhult grew up on an island in Sweden. This week, she’s playing on the Hawaiian islands. Although the two have stark differences, there is one commonality: wind.
The wind was blowing Wednesday during the first round of the LPGA’s Lotte Championship at Hoakalei Country Club in Ewa Beach. And it provided difficult conditions for everyone in the field, but Kinhult excelled.
The 23-year-old shot 6-under 66 to share the first-round lead with Natthakritta Vongtaveelap. Kinhult’s round included seven birdies and one bogey, which came on her last hole of the day, the par-3 ninth.
“It was very solid. Nothing crazy really happened,” Kinhult said. “Throughout the day tried to hit some fairways, and then I think I hit most greens, which is helpful in this wind. Just tried to stay patient out there shot by shot for real in this wind. A lot of the math in my head, so probably going to fall asleep pretty good tonight.
“Super happy with the start and pumped for the rest of the week.”
It’s the first time Kinhult has held a share of the 18-hole lead in her LPGA career.
Vongtaveelap had a bogey-free performance, which included an eagle on the par-5 fifth. She credited a strong driver with her great start.
Four players are tied for third at 4 under: Yu Jin Sung, Bailey Tardy, Nasa Hataoka and Hyo Joo Kim.
Here’s the full breakdown of the $1.7 million purse.
American Lilia Vu won the Honda LPGA Thailand in her debut and collected $255,000 for her efforts. The 25-year-old has now crossed $1 million in career earnings, with $1,177,769 since her rookie year in 2019.
“Feels really good to get it done,” she said. “I feel like I put a lot of pressure on myself at the end of last year, and during the off-season I kind of just changed my mindset. Like I always knew I was going to win, I just got to let it happen.
Thailand’s Natthakritta Vongtaveelap, a rookie who was playing on a sponsor exemption, banked a sizable check in her first LPGA tournament as a member: $157,780.
Here’s the full breakdown of the $1.7 million purse:
Vu hit 11 fairways and 11 greens and needed only 21 putts Sunday, pouring in a lengthy putt for par on the 17th to maintain the lead.
Lilia Vu came out firing on a windy day in Thailand. The former UCLA standout began the day six back and birdied two of her first three holes. After carding a string of five consecutive birdies in the middle of the round, Vu took the lead after a birdie on the par-4 15th over local favorite Natthakritta Vongtaveelap, an LPGA rookie who was playing the Honda LPGA Thailand on a sponsor exemption.
Vu never looked back.
“Today I basically just blacked out and tried to birdie every single hole,” said Vu. “If I didn’t, just move on and try again.
“Got into the scoring tent and didn’t know what I shot.”
Vu, 25, who was making her debut at the Honda, carded a bogey-free 64 on Sunday to finish at 22 under and clip Vongtaveelap (71) by one stroke to win her first LPGA title. Former World No. 1 Atthaya Thitikul finished two back after a closing 68.
Vu hit 11 fairways and 11 greens and needed only 21 putts Sunday, pouring in a lengthy putt for par on the 17th to maintain the lead.
“I knew I was going to win,” said Vu. “It was just when.”
Lilia Vu plays her second shot at the 18th hole during the final round of the 2023 Honda LPGA Thailand at Siam Country Club in Chon Buri, Thailand. (Photo: Thananuwat Srirasant/Getty Images)
A host of big names finished in a share of sixth, including current World No. 1 Lydia Ko, Nelly Korda, Leona Maguire and Jin Young Ko, who also shot 64.
Jin Young, who suffered from a severe wrist injury last season, says meditating helped her greatly over the offseason. Thailand marked the first time Ko has recorded four rounds in the 60s at a tournament since the 2022 Amundi Evian.
She’ll be defending her title next week in Singapore.
“I cried a lot last year in front of my parents,” Jin Young said, “but, yeah, golf is a lot of ups and downs so we have to focus on my game and try to get better then better. I think it works.”
Lydia Ko, who won last week in Saudi Arabia on the LET, said her putting wasn’t as strong in Thailand.
A bogey on the second hole and a double-bogey on the fourth made it all the more difficult for 20-year-old Vongtaveelap, who earned her LPGA card through Q-Series last December and was playing her first tour event as a member.
“I need to practice more on playing against the strong wind,” she said.
Clutch par putt by @TheLiliaVu on 17 to maintain her lead by 1! 😤
Vu earned $255,000 for her victory, taking her career earnings to $1,177,769.
After finishing in the top 3 on three different occasions last year and not hoisting a trophy, a frustrated Vu changed her approach.
“Feels really good to get it done,” she said. “I feel like I put a lot of pressure on myself at the end of last year, and during the off-season I kind of just changed my mindset. Like I always knew I was going to win, I just got to let it happen.
“The more you hold onto something, I feel like it gets farther away. I came close a lot towards the end of the last season, so I was just going to have fun and play my game and it would eventually work itself out.”
During her first year on the LPGA in 2019, Vu made one cut in nine starts and earned $3,830. The winningest player in UCLA history, with eight titles, considered hanging it up and going to law school.
Vu’s mom, however, convinced her to stay the course.
“I was in a really negative mindset, even my rookie year out here,” said Vu. “I didn’t feel like I belonged. Felt like every shot was life or death. I would look at the ball and set up and wouldn’t know where I was going to go because I was so nervous.”
Vu lost her card and found herself at an Epson Tour event in early 2020. She’d just been to visit her ailing grandfather before she left and he told her in Vietnamese, “Go play well. Do your best.”
Shortly after they returned to California, he died.
“It just really hit me that I was in a bad spot with my golf,” said Vu, “and the last thing he ever said to me was ‘play well.’
“Like out of all the things, he’s like struggling and he was thinking of me. I think that’s what I think about every day.”
Vu opened 2023 with a share of third at the Aramco Saudi Ladies International. U.S. Solheim Cup captain Stacy Lewis gave her a book earlier in the week with a note inside that said good playing. As a former top-ranked amateur who has represented the United States on numerous occasions, Vu loves team events. She has a picture of a past Solheim Cup team up on her wall as part of a vision board.
Lewis, so impressed by Vu’s play, predicted last year that Vu might not even need a pick to make the team.
Before leaving for Saudi Arabia, Vu admitted that she almost had a mental breakdown, thinking that she’d had all this time to prepare, yet didn’t feel that her game was sharp enough.
There’s a pair of Thai players on top of the leaderboard in Thailand. One of them has been No. 1 in the world. The other is leading by four while playing on a sponsor exemption.
Twenty-year-old Natthakritta Vongtaveelap shot 8-under 64 on Saturday to increase her lead to four shots over reigning LPGA rookie of the year Atthaya Thitikul with 18 holes to play at the Honda LPGA Thailand at Siam Country Club. Vongtaveelap, who got into the field after winning a national qualifier earlier this year, is one round away from a life-changing victory in her first LPGA start.
“Really good today,” she said of Saturday’s round. “Perfect.”
Vongtaveelap turned professional last November after advancing through the first two stages of LPGA Q-School. She earned LPGA membership for 2023 after finishing in a tie for 28th at LPGA Q-Series.
Her third round started with an eagle and she closed with three consecutive birdies. Vongtaveelap has only two bogeys on the week. She said the Thai crowds have been extremely supportive.
“I try to be myself, be with the game, and I think I can make it,” she said.
Thitikul matched Vontaveelap with a round of 64. Celine Boutier is in third at 15 under. World No. 1 Lydia Ko and No. 2 Nelly Korda are at 13 under and T-7.
Natthakritta Vongtaveelap is playing on a sponsor exemption and leading.
A trio of Thai players are in the top 10 of the Honda LPGA Thailand, including a rookie who leads the field at 12 under.
Natthakritta Vongtaveelap, 20, got into the field after winning a national qualifier for the event earlier this year. She’s competing on a sponsor exemption and making the most of her experience, carding a second-round 65 to take a one-stroke lead over Sweden’s Maja Stark. Vongtaveelap carded six birdies on her back nine.
“This is my first time, you know,” she said of her Honda debut. “It’s my largest crowd in my life.”
Bangkok’s Vongtaveelap turned professional last November after advancing through the first two stages of LPGA Q-School. She earned LPGA membership for 2023 after finishing in a tie for 28th at LPGA Q-Series. Vongtaveelap goes by “Sim” and is known as “Sim 300” for her distance off the tee.
Duke grad Jaravee Boonchant, another LPGA rookie, sits in a share of third while LPGA veteran Pornanong Phatlum holds a share of eighth, three back.
Thailand’s Atthaya Thitikul, last year’s LPGA Rookie of the Year, trails by four at T-15. 2022 U.S Women’s Amateur champion Saki Baba, who is also competing on a sponsor exemption, is tied for 20th at 7 under.
Stark, who holed out twice for eagle in the opening round, has won seven times worldwide since she left Oklahoma State early to turn professional in the summer of 2021. Her victory at the ISPS Handa World Invitational last summer earned her an LPGA card. She currently tops the LET’s Solheim Cup points list.
“I’ve been trying to get better at handling nerves, but I feel like I’m going to have nerves the whole weekend, so I’m just going to keep playing aggressively anyway. Just keep putting my foot on the pedal and try to go low. Not compare myself to other people. Just try to make as many birdies as I can do because can’t affect the way they’re playing.”
Nelly Korda of United States looks on putting green at 18th hole during the second round of the Honda LPGA Thailand at Siam Country Club on February 24, 2023 in Chon Buri. (Photo by Thananuwat Srirasant/Getty Images)
Second-ranked Korda’s 66 was highlighted by a chip-in for eagle on the par-5 10th hole. Korda, whose sister Jessica won this event in 2018, said she was in between clubs on her second shot and opted to hit 3-wood off the downhill slope. She’d actually practiced the chip shot that followed earlier in the week.
“It was a tricky shot,” said Korda. “It was an undulated green kind of with not much room to work with, a little downhill left-to-righter, and then coming back left and I just landed it perfectly.”
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:
Meet 12 of the players set for the 144-hole grind.
One hundred players will tee it up this week at LPGA Q-Series, an eight-round grind that begins on Dec. 1 and ends Dec. 11. The first week will be contested at the RTJ Trail at Magnolia Grove in Mobile, Alabama, at the Crossings and Falls courses.
The field will be cut to top 70 and ties after the first week of competition. The second week of competition will take place at Highland Oaks Golf Course in Dothan, Alabama.
A total of 45 players will receive LPGA status in 2023. This is the first year that players were required to turn professional before entering Q-Series. A total of six players turned pro for this week: Nataliya Guseva, Minji Kang, Ashley Lau, Heather Lin, Valery Plata and Natthakritta Vongtaveelap.
Players in the top 75 of the Rolex Rankings automatically advanced to the final stage. Those players include: Yuna Nishimura (44), Hae Ran Ryu (51) and Minami Katsu (56).
Players who finish in the top 20 of Q-Series will fall under Category 14 of the LPGA Priority List. Those who finish 21-45 and ties earn Category 15 and Epson Tour status Category C.
Those who complete all four rounds before the cut earn Epson Tour status.
This year’s field features an eclectic group of players, including former college hotshots, up-and-comers and a former Netflix star.
“No one really wants to be here,” said Dewi Weber, who finished 101st on the CME points list this year, one position shy of a full card.
“The vibes are always really, really weird at Q-school. But I was a rookie on the LPGA, but I feel like I’m kind of a vet when it comes to Q-school because I’ve done this now four times, even though I don’t want to but I have.”
