A Star Is Born: Patty Tavatanakit Goes Wire-To-Wire At ANA

There’s a new force on the LPGA Tour, a new star, one with incredible power and finesse and her name is Patty Tavatanakit.

Tavatanakit put on a display of poise, shot-making and scrambling on a boiling-hot Sunday at Mission Hills and wasn’t the least bit bothered by an historic charge from major champion Lydia Ko.

Tavatanakit, a 21-year-old rookie from Thailand by way of UCLA, went into the final round at the ANA Inspiration with a hefty five shot lead over Ally Ewing and Mirim Lee but it was Ko who applied the ultimate pressure with a closing 62, a feat no player has accomplished in the 50-year history of this women’s major championship.

“I didn’t look at the leaderboard at all today,” said Tavatanakit, who got rolling early with a chip-in eagle at the par five second that jump-started her match to victory — her first on the LPGA Tour.  “I saw her name (Ko) up there but I didn’t look at it — I wanted to play my own game, which I did and did a really good job of that today,” she said after a closing 68 and a two-shot winning margin over Ko, one of the game’s young superstars.

Over the final 16 holes, Tavatanakit showed off the skill set that took her to the wire-to-wire victory after rounds of 66-69-67 and a closing 68 for an impressive 18-under winning total, two clear of Ko.

“Like I said, I didn’t really look at the leaderboard.  I didn’t really care who did anything.  I just wanted to focus on myself,” said the rookie rising star whose previous best on Tour was a tie for fifth.  She matched he 54-hole tournament record and finished a shot shy of Dottie Pepper’s 72-hole mark of 19-under set back in 1999.

Tavatanakit has monster length off the tee and she does it with perfect balance.  All week her irons had laser-accuracy and her work around the greens makes her a huge threat going forward now that she’s won for the first time and made it an impressive major to boot.

“It still really hasn’t sunk in yet, the fact that I just turned 21 six months ago and now I’m a major champion in my rookie year.  Just crazy,” she said after getting doused with champagne by a half-dozen other players then taking the traditional lead with her caddie into Poppie’s Pond.

As for Ko, she was beyond red-hot all day.  Five birdies and an eagle at the par five second put her seven-under at the turn, shooting 29.  She birdied 10 and 11 to get to nine-under then added her final birdie at the 15th for a closing 62.  She is the first player to shoot that at the ANA in the final round.  Lorena Ochoa shot 62 back in 2006 but not in the final 18.  Ko began the day eight shots back of Tavatanakit but put on a charge that had everyone buzzing.  Things might have been different with crowds but there were no spectators to appreciate Ko’s effort.

“My game was really solid and I felt like I gave myself a good run at it, but maybe Patty was just a bit too far away,” Ko said afterward. “I think it just shows it doesn’t matter how far back you are, you can always go for it.”

Winless since April 2018, Ko’s game is obviously back.  “I don’t think it was like there was an exact moment where I felt like, ‘OK, this is going to be a good one,’” Ko said. “Especially around a course like this, you just have to focus until that last putt drops in the last hole.”

As good as Ko was, it was Tavatanakit in the major spotlight.

With her power and precision, when she’s playing like she did in the season’s first major — she’s going to be beyond tough to beat.

ANA Inspiration Scoreboard: