Thailand’s Pajari Ananarukarn has been crowned the new ‘Match Queen’ of the Women’s Professional Golf (LPGA) Tour.
Ananarukarn won the LPGA Tour’s Bank of Hope Match Play ($1.5 million) by three strokes over Ayaka Furue (Japan) in the final round at Shadow Creek Golf Club (par 72) in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, on 29 September.
It was her second career LPGA victory. Annanarukarn won her first LPGA Tour event in 2021 at the ISPS Handa World Invitational.안전놀이터
She also became the first Thai player to win on the LPGA Tour this season.
Anannarukarn had earlier tied with Karis Davidson (AUS) in the group stage at 2 and 1 before advancing to the main draw via a play-off.
He made it to the round of 16, but it was all downhill from there.
She defeated Cheyenne Knight (USA) by three holes in the round of 16 and then beat Carlota Zimda (Spain) by three holes in the quarter-finals.
In the semi-finals, she faced last year’s European Ladies European Tour (LET) money winner Lynn Grant (SWE), who also won by three strokes to reach the final.
Her final opponent was Furue, last year’s runner-up.
After a tight start, the match slowly turned in favour of Annanarukarn, who took a one-hole lead from the seventh (par-5).
Ananarukan birdied the 12th (par-4) to extend his lead to two. Furue birdied the 13th (par-3), but Annanarukyan birdied the 14th (par-4) to retain the lead.
Ananarukan then sealed the match with a birdie on the 17th (par-3).
Hurue, who lost out to Ji-hee Lee (37-Hanwha Q CELLS) in last year’s final, finished runner-up once again.
Meanwhile, all South Korean players in the tournament suffered humiliating group stage exits.