Pornanong Phatlum opened with a bogey-free 33 to start the final round of the Hitachi Ladies Classic on the TLPGA and cruised her way home to a 5-shot victory over Pei-Yun Chien on the strength of her 2nd-straight 69. Finishing at -8, Phatlum beat bronze medalist Min-Sun Kim by 7 shots and the JLPGA's young gun Lala Anai by 8. Anai, however, did shoot the low round of the week, a 4-birdie, 1-eagle 67, that leapfrogged her past fellow JLPGAer Phoebe Yao, the LPGA's Amy Hung, the LET's Nontaya Srisawang, the Symetra Tour's Wei-Ling Hsu, and the TLPGA's Yu-Ling Hsieh.
It was a disappointing start to 2014 for the KLPGA's Bo-Mi Suh (+5, T17), the JLPGA's Yuki Sakurai (+6, T22), Yun-Joo Jeong (+6, T22), Kaori Ohe (+9, T28), and Porani Chutichai (+9, T28), the 2013 CLPGA Order of Merit winner Ye-Na Chung (+7, T24), the 2013 TLPGA money list leader Ya-Huei Lu (+11, T39), and American Tiffany Tavee (+7, T24). And it was only a so-so start for 2 of Taiwan's most promising young players, Babe Liu and Min Lee, both of whom ended up 11 shots behind Phatlum in a tie for 10th.
So Phatlum has shown she can chase down a former world #1 in the LET's season-ending event of 2014 and live up to expectations against a much weaker field in the TLPGA's season-opening event of 2014. Wonder what she has in store for us next?
[Update 1 (3:17 pm): Here's bangkokbobby's take!]
1 comment:
I'm thinking that one of the most important things that could come out of these wins, is it will better prepare her when she is in contention coming down the stretch on the LPGA in 2014.
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