Even after a record 10 players from Thailand advanced into the recent LPGA final qualifying tournament, their coach back home attempted to cushion their expectations.
Virada Nirapathpongporn, a former LPGA Tour member and NCAA champion, suggested that each of the young professionals have backup plans for next year should they not earn LPGA status.
But that caution fell on deaf ears. By the conclusion of the 90-hole tournament, eight Thai players had earned LPGA membership.
“We worked four years for these five days,” said Benyapa Niphatsophon, 18, who played three extra holes in a three-way playoff for one of the last two full-season LPGA cards.
Budsabakorn Sukapan, 18, a two-time Asian tour winner, tied for second at the LPGA Q-School at 11-under 349 for five rounds.
“I have improved my game, so it’s time to do something bigger,” she said.
That larger aspiration merged into the current fabric of diversity in women’s professional golf.
When the 2016 season begins, the young Thai pros will join a long list of Asian players who have made a significant impact on women’s golf. Jackie Pung, a native Hawaiian, was a five-time LPGA winner from 1953 to 1958. Hall of Famer Chako Higuchi became the first Japanese player to win an LPGA major with her victory at the 1977 LPGA Championship. Other top Japanese players followed, including Ayako Okamoto and Ai Miyazato.
Se Ri Pak changed the women’s game forever with four wins, including two major championships, in 1998 that inspired a generation of South Korean women like Inbee Park, a seven-time major winner.
In recent years, top players from Taiwan (Yani Tseng) and China (Shanshan Feng) emerged as leading women professionals.
Buoyed by the performance of male pro golfers Thongchai Jaidee and Kiradech Aphibarnrat, ranked No. 29 and 37, Thailand has begun producing more golfers who could contend on the professional tours.
Six Thai players held LPGA membership in 2015, with Pornanong Phatlum (ranked No. 43) and Ariya Jutanugarn (63) cracking the top 100. Sherman Santiwiwatthanaphong won on the Symetra Tour this year, and Thai players finished second and fourth in the Ladies European Tour’s recent Omega Dubai Ladies Masters.
Thailand led all of Asia in numbers at this year’s final LPGA Q-School, tying Canada at 10, for the highest number of international contestants in the event.
But Nirapathpongporn, the 2002 NCAA champion at Duke and the 2003 U.S. Women’s Amateur champion, was not sure what to expect at this year’s tournament. Based in Bangkok, she serves as coach in the Thailand Ladies Golf Association and has worked with several of the Thai players who competed at the Q-School.
“I am pleasantly surprised that the girls were so successful this year at Q-School,” Nirapathpongporn said in an email. “They just seem to be so single-minded in this mission, which worked out.”
Joining Sukapan and Niphatsophon with full tour status were Nontaya Srisawang, 27, and Pannarat Thanapolboonyaras, 17.
“Compared to my first year at Q-School, there were just two or three of us from Thailand, but golf is growing,” said Srisawang, who has played on the LPGA, Symetra and Ladies European tours. “I think in the future, there will be more Thai players.”
Four other Thai players — Santiwiwatthanaphong, 18; Wichanee Meechai, 22; Prima Thammaraks, 23; and Pavarisa Yoktuan, 21 — finished in the top 32 to earn conditional membership in 2016, allowing them to compete in some LPGA events. They will round out their tournament schedules on the Symetra Tour and tours around the world.
“This is my dream,” said Meechai, ranked No. 308. “The LPGA has all the best players in the world.”
The Thai players and several of their mothers shared condominiums during the tournament, with the mothers cooking dinner each evening. The pros were focused on golf during competitive rounds, but at dinner, they chatted, laughed and enjoyed a bit of home cooking served up in a wok.
Niphatsophon was followed every step by her compatriots over the three extra holes she played. She was embraced and doused by water by her peers after her final putt.
“We try to help each other,” said Yoktuan, who has three runner-up finishes on the China Tour. “There’s enough stress on the golf course, so it’s nice to be together with other Thai players after the rounds.”
Russy Gulyanamitta was the LPGA’s first Thai player in 2004. Her sister Numa, who was a member of Purdue’s NCAA championship team in 2010, was among those attempting to earn her LPGA Tour card at the Q-School. She missed the 72-hole cut and will return to the Symetra Tour next year, but she left the tournament excited about being a part of a growing Thai contingent in women’s golf.
“It’s exciting that there are going to be a lot of good Thai players on the LPGA,” Numa Gulyanamitta said. “Men’s golf is very popular in Thailand, but now that we have more women players, people will be cheering for both.”
Thammaraks acknowledged that the older Thai players would be watching the next wave of young talent in 2016. After she graduated from Iowa State last year and returned to Thailand, Thammaraks discovered that sometimes her competition was not even old enough to drive.
“They are young, but they are great players,” said Thammaraks, who plays on tours in China, Taiwan and Thailand. “We’re all competitive, but we’re also here to support each other and help golf grow in our country.”
