A decade before her first LPGA Tour victory at the ISPS Handa World Invitational on Sunday, Pajaree Anannarukarn had a conversation with her dad about her golf ball marking. Her creative 12-year-old self drew so many pictures on the ball, she could hardly see its white cover when it sat in the rough. They agreed she should stick to one phrase to mark her ball, “Good Luck,” which she still uses to this day.
It might have been no coincidence, then, that her first career LPGA victory came in Northern Ireland maybe with a bit of the luck of the Irish to defeat Emma Talley in a two-hole playoff after each concluded 72-holes in 16-under 275 at Galgorm Castle Golf Club. The afternoon ended with her father hoisting her up in celebration, gleefully spinning around on the 18th green as friends sprayed them with water.
“He’s always been by my side along the way from the very beginning of my career,” Annarukarn said. “And just to be able to share it with him was very, very special.”
Anannarukarn cited luck for how she recovered following the par-4 sixth. Tied for the lead entering the hole, she had to take relief from an awkward stance next to a tree in the scruff following a wayward tee shot. She wound up posting a triple bogey to fall behind by two.
Rather than lamenting the triple, Anannarukarn somehow let go of the jarring moment as soon as she walked to the seventh tee.
“I just forgot,” Anannarukarn said. “I just kind of just stood up and told myself to keep trying, just do the best I can.”
Anannarukarn recomposed herself, playing the final 12 holes at three-under. She trailed Kupcho by a stroke with three to play. Kupcho opened the door with bogeys on two of the last three holes, punctuated with hitting it into the water on her third shot from the left rough on the par 5 18th. The 2019 Augusta National Women’s Amateur champion missed out on the playoff by a stroke in her bid for a first LPGA victory.
“I choked at nationals one year and then the next year came back and won,” Kupcho said, “So I think it’s just all part of building and learning from every experience.”
It turned into match play mode from there between Talley and Anannarukarn. The Thai native ran her birdie putt eight feet past the flag on the 72nd hole. Then, facing a three-foot par putt from Talley, the 22-year-old dropped it dead into the heart. After Talley punched home her par, the ISPS Handa World Invitational went to extra holes, guaranteeing a first-time winner.
Both Anannarukarn and Talley traded pars on the first playoff hole, the former when she holed a nine-foot par putt.
On the second extra hole, Talley hit her drive into a bunker right of the fairway. Anannarukarn followed on a similar line, but her ball narrowly carried the bunker and settled in the rough.
Talley compounded her error with a second shot into rough and a third careening off the patrons to the right of the green. After Anannarukarn hit the green with her third, Talley’s chip just stopped short of the green. Her 20-foot right-to-left par putt from the fringe missed the cup low left, leaving a tap-in bogey. Anannarukarn, hitting her first putt over the fringe to eight feet, then holed the winning putt.
Anannarukarn credited the consistency of her approach to remain so calm under pressure with her putter.
“Just really go back to my routine,” Anannarukarn said, “Try to stay focused and committed to the given line and really trust that I can make those.
The second-place finish is the best result of Talley’s career. She tried to maintain that perspective before play began Sunday, jotting in her yardage book, ”Thank God for this opportunity and the experience no matter what happens,” on Saturday night.
“That’s how I truly feel,” Talley said.
Anannarukarn’s victory makes her the fifth-first time winner on the LPGA Tour in 2021. She is also the fourth Thai player to win this year, joining Patty Tavatanakit at the ANA Inspiration, Ariya Jutanugarn at the Honda LPGA Thailand, and winning with her sister Moriya Jutanugarn at the DOW Great Lakes Bay Invitational. It’s the most individual Thai champions in a single season in LPGA history.
“It’s a great honor to be able to be representing Thailand and also winning out here,” Anannarukarn said. “It’s definitely a dream come true to be able to achieve this.