2024 Honda LPGA Thailand

Round 4

Congrats to Tavatanakit. It was pretty obvious she had this one in the bag, and she at least managed to not blow it (you could tell that the nerves were starting to get to her). This event was remarkably similar to her Major win, actually. Like there, she had little to worry about off the tee and so could bomb it time and again, leaving herself short irons and wedges. Famously, at the ANA she did not have a single approach for any par 4 on Sunday with more than a nine iron, and it looked that way here. Even when she made mistakes she got breaks: she hit a horrible tee shot on the drivable par 4 and wound up with a shot on a flat patch with no rough and a perfect line to the green.

So with the win pretty much out of reach all day, at least we were lucky to see the Koreans really play great. Well, it's hard to tell how great since basically everyone was shooting in the mid-sixties, but there were highlights. I'm so proud of Hye Jin. She suffered two bad approaches early that cost her three shots, but she came to life on the back nine, eagling the drivable par 4, hitting a superlative chip on the final hole for birdie, and producing a 29, the low back nine of the entire week. And she had to deal with the crowds for PT basically walking away as soon as PT hit; the commentators even mentioned that distraction several times. Hopefully this is a sign that she is ready to go into Terminator mode this year.

Sei Young Kim usually falls apart when she is anywhere on a leaderboard on Sunday, but this time she fought hard all day, shooting 65. When she got to 17 under, she even was momentarily close to the lead and might have put some pressure on the leader, but alas was not able to cash in. Eight birdies and one bogey, 16/18 GIR. You can't ask for much more.

Hyo Joo was her usual laconic self, but even she had some thrilling birdie makes, including what might have been a fist pump at one point (for Hyo Joo, this is an incredible occurrence). Amazingly, she shot a 67 despite hitting only 8 greens.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C3wpHHNPqRE

Hae Ran, one of the longer Korean hitters, took advantage with an insane front nine: 6 birdies, no bogies, to vault up to second place at the time. She struggled more on the back nine but had one highlight, an eagle on the drivable par 4. She also had a 65.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C3wYA8ovtcR

So four Sisters in the top ten: Sei Young/Hye Jin T3 (-18, three back); Hyo Joo T5 (-17) and Hae Ran T9 (-15).

How ridiculously scorable was the course? The worst score in the top 20 on Sunday was a 71. There were four 65s and a 63. Other scores: Mi Hyang Lee 65, Na Rin An 66, Amy Yang and Jin Young Ko 68, A Lim Kim 69.

Re: Amy, she finished T23 to partially rescue her week. Jin Young had a decent final day: 16/18 GIR, longest driving of the week (263) and less than 30 putts. That's a good stat line in prep for her defense, on a course much more set up to her strengths (I hope).

Sisters hwaiting!

This tournament belongs in California. Our taxes are super high but the humidity is low.

No problem, you fix your state so companies like Toyota will return to California.

California has been the center of the Universe for 150 years and will remain the center of golf for at least another 150 years. Just watch.

What did In Gee say or do? I can't find anything unusual...