Honda-PTT LPGA Thailand: All set for big week of golf in Pattaya
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Virada Nirapathpongporn
Over the next few days, Pattaya will temporarily be the centre of the women's golf world. The LPGA's top players are in Thailand's famous resort town to compete in the US$1.3 million season-opening Honda-PTT LPGA Thailand tournament.
For those who were there at the Siam Country Club, Plantation Course last year and plan to attend the tournament again this time around, you can all expect the interest to pick up a few notches as a certain Michelle Wie will join the likes of Lorena Ochoa, Shin Jiyai, Suzann Pettersen, Paula Creamer, Natalie Gulbis and Laura Davies in a tournament that features one of the most competitive line-ups on the tour.
Ochoa returns to defend her title and she will inevitably start as the favourite when the first round begins tomorrow. However there will be some tough competition for the Mexican world No.1 to contend with.
The tournament will also offer Ochoa a chance to revive her historic battle with Korean star Shin. The two fought to the last hole for the points-based LPGA Player of the Year title in the season-ending Tour Championship last year and by the smallest of margins - a single point to be exact - Ochoa took home the title for the fourth straight year.
Ochoa would love to kick off her season with a victory once again and it would seem silly to consider any other player as a favourite. Given that fact that the 28-year-old usually starts her season strongly (she won her first tournament of the year in the past two seasons), it would be difficult to bet against that happening again.
(...) Thailand will be represented by the country's most well-known professionals - Russamee (Russy) Gulyanamitta, Virada Nirapathpongporn and Nontaya Srisawang.
Two amateurs Thidapa Suwannapura and Ariya Jutanukarn will also mix it with the best.
If last year's competition was a success in terms of spectators, the tournament organisers can expect an even bigger crowd to flock to the Siam Country Club, Old Course thanks to the much-anticipated involvement of Wie.