Californian-native Angel Yin held off Japanese rookie sensation Akie Iwai to secure her second career LPGA title at Honda LPGA Thailand.
26-year-old Yin came into the final round as the overnight leader with a healthy five shot advantage. However, the 22-year-old rookie looked to rally to stay in contention. After the opening nine holes, she’d reduced Yin’s lead to three shots, and then two by the 10th. The American made par on the 11th, but Iwai continued to put the pressure on and halved her lead yet again to one stroke. A birdie on the 12th meant the pair were neck-and-neck at the top of the leaderboard.
However, Yin held her nerve as she sunk three consecutive birdies to pull away. With her lead reclaimed, Iwai seemed to waver at last as Yin concluded with a final-round 65 to end on 28 under and claim another LPGA Tour victory.
Iwai carded an impressive final-round 61 which included 10 birdies and an eagle to finish a shot behind Yin. Yin’s 260 total set new LPGA records, surpassing Annika Sorenstam’s previous 2001 record of 261. She also surpassed the tournament’s 72-hole record of 262, previously held by Nanna Koerstz Madsen and Xiyu Lin from 2022.
When asked about the final round’s momentum changer, Yin credited it to her play on the 17th. “Probably 17. I hit it tight. Akie went long. I was like, ‘OK, she can make a brilliant up-and-down and I needed to make my birdie. She almost did pull off that brilliant up-and-down but I got lucky. And then, coming into 18, it’s the most amazing thing to see the hardest pin on the golf course.”
Thailand-native Jeeno Thitikul secured a solo-third finish on home soil on 21 under while two more Thai players, Patty Tavatanakit and Moriya Jutanugarn, tied for fourth on 19 under, giving their home crowd something to cheer for.
“It’s a good week, to be honest,” said Thitikul. “Really nice to finish in the top three and then my home country, also my birthday week. Everything is about process, and then if it’s good, it’s good. If it’s not good, just take it. It’s just life. You can’t be good all day, and then you can’t be bad all week long.
“We always been doing on the swing as well, and then I think everything is just process, to be honest. It doesn’t have to be specifically things to do, but everything that we do we’re trying to improve ourself.”
WHAT IS THE NEXT EVENT?
The next event on the LPGA Tour schedule is the HSBC Women’s World Championship taking place between February 27 – March 2 at Sentosa Golf Club in Singapore.