2023 Honda LPGA Thailand

The stats on LPGA.com have a lot of mistakes.  For example, they showed co-leader Jaravee Boonchant had 36 putts; how can any player shoots -7 with 36 putts?

The correct number for In Gee is 33 putts, not good but not 39.

Who the heck is Vongtaveelap? I don't think I've ever heard of her before and she's leading the event? OK, she's a rookie who finished t-28th at Q-School. She's ranked 470th and sponsored by KB. So KB is branching out I guess.

It's looking like the Koreans are going to extend their winless streak. I suppose Jenny could win but it seems unlikely, and she's the only Korean in the top 19. Some encouraging results: Sei Young Kim got as high as 9 under before a double to drop to 7 under, but that's still only five back, and so far she hasn't had too many blow-up holes. She is one of the Koreans capable of going low, so stay tuned. Jin Young had a slightly less decent round 2 than her opening round, but not too bad. If she can produce at least one sub-66 this week I'll start to believe, but for now I'm cautiously optimistic. She's six back.

Hyo Joo also five back after a mediocre second and really good first. Six produced a 68 to get to 4 under, 8 back. For her, every strong round gets her closer to the world beater I know she can be, so fingers crossed. A Lim had a 66 to climb to 5 under while Hye Jin and In Gee are having so-so weeks at 4 and 3 under respectively.

Hwaiting!

I don't recall the broadcasters mentioning Jin Young Ko during the times I was paying attention. They have brought up a couple of times the fact that Jenny Shin is not yet part of the HSBC Women's World Championship field.

This is the 16th time the tournament has been played.

In the previous 15 times it has been played Korean players have achieved, putting it modestly, some pretty good bragging rights.


  1. 2006 Hee Won Han
  2. 2013 Inbee Park
  3. 2015 Amy Yang
  4. 2017 Amy Yang
  5. 2019 Amy Yang


  1. 2009 Hee Young Park
  2. 2014 Inbee Park
  3. 2015 Mirim Lee
  4. 2016 In Gee Chun
  5. 2017 So Yeon Ryu

Round 3

Obviously this will extend the Korean winless streak, and the leaderboard is not very good, but there are a few positives.

Jin Young is certainly hitting a lot of greens; 16/18 today. She had 33 putts, though, and 0/2 from the sand and only shot 70. But this is a massive improvement from the way she was playing at the end of last year. I'm hoping she can put up a great final round and post a top ten. Not likely, but doable. And if her worst problem is putting, I'm not worried, because she's an excellent putter, and she will solve that problem sooner rather than later.

I've decided that In Gee only does well if she manages a great first round. Any event where she is out of the top 20 after the first round is going to end up a mediocre one; she rarely runs up the leaderboard in later rounds (at least it feels like that). She did have a nice 67 on Saturday. I think she'll probably need a 65 Sunday for a top ten. But when she's not her best she's usually finishing 15th - 35th, and it feels like that is where she'll be this week.

Strong 66 for Hye Jin to move into hailing distance of the top ten. Hyo Joo also had a 66. It's not as special on this course, alas, but that's the way the LPGA wants it.

Hwaiting!