El Old Course del Siam Country Club de Pattaya, en Chonburi, Thailand, has been the setting this Thursday for the start of a new edition of the Honda LPGA Thailand, a limited field event featuring many of the best players from the US circuit, offering 1.7 million dollars in prizes. A scene in which the only representative of Spanish golf, Carlota Ciganda (-2), has taken positions, near the top 20 of the leaderboard, but far from the extraordinary Akie Iwai (-10).
The 22-year-old Japanese golfer, with six victories on the LPGA of Japan Tour and playing the tournament with a sponsor’s invitation, delivered a true masterclass with a round of 62 strokes, with 10 birdies and no mistakes, to position herself as the standout leader with a three-stroke advantage over Swedish Maja Stark (-7) and four over Thai Moriya Jutanugarn (-6), who seeks to be a prophet in her own land. Other big names on the tour appear at the top, such as Jin Young Ko (-5), Nanna Koerstz Madsen (-5), or Angel Yin (-5).
Iwai, with her exhibition this Thursday, also managed to equal the lowest score in the tournament, previously achieved by Yuka Saso in 2022 and American Jessica Korda in 2018. A sensational debut for a very young player who earned her LPGA card last December after finishing tied for fifth place in the final qualifying series.
Carlota was able to overcome a very challenging start to her round. She began the day with a painful double bogey on the par-five 10th hole and closed her first nine with another bogey on the 17th, and no birdies, for a three-over-par score that placed her very low. However, as soon as she teed off on the 1st to start the second half of her round, she transformed to the point of climbing many positions and getting back into the fight… with Iwai‘s permission.
The Navarrese player birdied the 1st, made par on the 2nd, and from there started a series of four more birdies in five holes, three of them consecutive between the 3rd and 5th, to finish with a scorecard of 70 strokes, two under par, the same as other favourites like Ruining Yin (-2), Yealimi Noh (-2), Hyo Joo Kim (-2), Brooke M. Henderson (-2), Sei Young Kim (-2), Ariya Jutanugarn (-2), Georgia Hall (-2), or Pajaree Anannarujarn (-2), among others.
With 54 holes still ahead, Ciganda has managed to overcome the first hurdle she faced in this Honda LPGA Thailand to emerge ‘unscathed’ and remain in the group of contenders fighting for everything. What has become clear, with 39 scorecards under par, is that the Thai course, with its challenges, offers the opportunity to achieve low scores, so dreaming of a comeback and reaching the weekend closer to the lead is still possible.
