First tournament of the year on the LPGA Tour. First round. In Thailand. It’s a par 5. The 10th hole. Julia López hits the first shot, hits the second, and sinks it with the third. Then she dusts off her hands and scores an eagle in her debut in 2026 on the American circuit. You can’t ask for much more. Well, maybe you can, maintaining that good rhythm until the end of the round and completing a more than notable first card of 67 strokes. That’s exactly what the golfer from Benahavís has done this Thursday on the Old course of the Siam Country Club in Pattaya.
Julia has positioned herself at -5 in sixth place on the leaderboard after the first 18 holes. She is just two shots behind the leading pair formed by local Thai Chanette Wannasaen (-7) and Japanese Nasa Hataoka (-7). Just one stroke above the Spaniard are Korean Hye Jin Choi (-6), who was close to winning last week at the PIF Saudi Ladies International, Scottish Gemma Dryburgh (-6), and fellow Korean Somi Lee (-6).
This is Julia López’s first participation in this tournament. So far, it’s been a case of arriving and hitting the ground running. Splendid. Now it’s time to take the next step, to maintain that good form. Today she made four birdies, an eagle, and a solitary bogey. Perhaps the most important thing is that the young golfer, former World Amateur Number One, has caught the right wave of the tournament.
You only have to look at the company she has surrounded herself with in this debut to see that she is on the right track. With that score of -5, she is tied with Jeeno Thutiikul, World Number One and main favourite for the win, and Major winners Lydia Ko, Ariya Jutanugarn, Grace Kim, Allisen Corpuz, and Hannah Green, among others.
Thitikul said in the preview that she wasn’t quite comfortable with her iron shots to the green. It doesn’t seem to have affected her too much in this first round, as she delivered a card with five birdies and no bogeys. The truth is she didn’t miss much (15 of 18 greens), and when she did, she recovered very well.
Julia was also more than brilliant from tee to green. It’s pure mathematics with the Andalusian. When her long game works, she’s always at the top in tournaments. Today she hit 10 fairways and 16 greens.
The downside of the day, quite unexpected, was for Carlota Ciganda (+3). The Navarrese closes the leaderboard with a most eventful round of golf. She made three birdies but stumbled with four bogeys and a double bogey to cap off the torment right at the final stretch, on the 5th hole. She also started on the 10th, like Julia. Precisely, Carlota’s long game took the day off this Thursday. She hit nine fairways, which isn’t bad, but only managed to hit 10 greens in regulation. It was a day of hard work around the green.
The tournament is a reduced field, so there is no cut. It is played over four rounds.
