In just her second time playing the ANA Inspiration, LPGA Tour rookie Patty Tavatanakit proved to be a quick learner, winning the first major on the LPGA Tour schedule by two shots over Lydia Ko – whose final-round 62 tied the course record at Mission Hills Country Club.
Team Golf Town athlete Brooke Henderson finished tied for 19th. It was her 31st top-20 finish on the LPGA Tour in her last 42 events, a mark of remarkable consistency.
Brooke started the week with a 3-over 75 but righted the ship from Friday onwards with rounds of 69-68-70.
“Thursday was a tough day so to bounce back the way we did on Friday was really exciting! We were happy to get a great round of 3-under in and play the weekend! To start out the way we did on Thursday, fight to make the cut, climb up the leaderboard on Friday and Saturday and then finish with a top-20 finish was great,” said Brooke.
Brooke’s ball-striking on the weekend was strong, hitting 33 of 36 greens in rounds three and four. She also averaged 317 yards off the tee Sunday.
“I learned a lot about my mental strength and hopefully will learn from it in the upcoming weeks. I feel I hit the ball really well this week. I was hitting my driver really well and I gave myself a lot of chances for birdies with my ball striking,” said Brooke.
Tavatanakit, just 21, is not afraid to go low and she proved that this week – going wire-to-wire to win. She was just the fourth wire-to-wire winner in the 50-year history of the event.
The native of Thailand once carded an 11-under-par 61 at the 2019 Thornberry Creek LPGA Classic – a tournament she got into as a sponsor exemption – and was first in Scoring Average on the Symetra Tour in 2019 en route to finishing second on the money list that year after three victories. She also finished fifth at the U.S. Open in 2018 when she was just 19.
The ANA Inspiration victory was her first win – and first major triumph – on the LPGA Tour.
“I feel like I stuck with my game plan and I overcame the adversity out there,” said Tavatanakit, who admitted after the win that she was just happy to have been able to get through the pressure-packed situation that was winning her first major.
“It was tough mentally and I just feel like there was a lot going on. I was pretty nervous the first couple holes. Probably the first seven holes I was really nervous. I was walking to my shots slower to automatically calm myself down every time I hit, and I feel like that was really important for today.”
With the shortened LPGA Tour season in 2020, Tavatanakit is still considered a rookie. With the win she became the first rookie on the LPGA Tour to win the ANA Inspiration since Juli Inkster in 1984.
She was also the first golfer from Thailand to win the ANA Inspiration – not bad for a golfer whose best finish on the LPGA Tour prior to this week was a tie for fifth.
Ko’s 10-under-par 62, meanwhile, was the lowest final-round score in the history of major championships on the LPGA Tour. It also tied the lowest single round in the history of the ANA Inspiration.
Ko started working with Canadian swing coach Sean Foley last year, and she credited Foley with her great play this week.
“Early in the week I was talking with Sean (Foley) and he said make sure that I’m out there hitting with 100% conviction. I said, Commitment? And he said, Conviction,” said Ko. “I think that that’s what I’ve tried to focus on, my feels. I got off to a really good start. Being 3-under after two is never a bad way to start your round. I think I got a couple lucky breaks.
“I don’t think it was like there was an exact moment where I felt like, okay, this is going to be a good one. Especially around a course like this, you just have to focus until that last putt drops in the last hole.”
The next time the LPGA Tour is in action in two weeks is at the LOTTE Championship in Hawaii, where Brooke is the two-time defending champion.