Pornanong Phatlum Defends LAGT Title in India

The Ladies Asian Golf Tour has been the incubator of some great international talent: Eun-Hee Ji and Hee Young Park in 2006, Ya Ni Tseng and Ji-Yai Shin in 2007, and Hee Kyung Seo and Pornanong Phatlum in 2008. Well, this season may be the year Phatlum is joined by a trio of fellow Thai players: Onnarin Sattayabanphot (LPGA Class of 2008), Nontaya Srisawang (LPGA Class of 2009, like Phatlum), and Titiya Plucksataporn (who'll be competing on the LET this season). Sattayabanphot won last week in Thailand and Phatlum just won this week in India for her 4th career LAGT victory. We'll see how ready this Thai foursome are for the rigors of the equivalent of AAA baseball very soon, as both winners will be joined on the Futures Tour this season by Srisawang, while Plucksataporn will be going the Yuki Sakurai route and gaining experience on the LET before going for the big leagues. It won't be too long before the Jutanugarn sisters are joining them, either. Thai-American Stacy Prammanasudh, who's making a little charge this morning in the Honda LPGA Thailand event, and veteran Russy Gulyanamitta could have a lot more company on tour as early as 2010.