Lilia Vu of Fountain Valley, Calif., rallied from a six-shot deficit to win her first LPGA Tour victory at Thailand at Siam Country Club’s Pattaya Old Course in Chonburi, Thailand, on Sunday, Feb. 26.
Vu birdied holes 8–12 and 15 to finish at 22–under (266), after saving par on the final three holes to edge Thailand tour rookie Natthakritta Vongtaveelap, 21–under, who began the day as the final round leader.
Vongtaveelap shot a 71 on Sunday with a bogey on the par-4 second hole and a double-bogey at the par-3 No. 4.
The 25-year old Vu made 21 putts in the final round, for her second-best round behind carding a 63 at the 2022 Ascendant LPGA, stating that her “dad said that with one good [final] round that I could win.”
With eight Top Ten finishes in 2022, Vu said, “[It] feels really good to get it done. I feel like I put a lot of pressure on myself at the end of last year, and during the offseason I kind of just changed my mindset. Like I always knew I was going to win, I just got to let it happen. ... The more you hold onto something I feel like it gets further away. I came close a lot towards the end of the last season, so I was just going to have fun and play my game and it would eventually work itself out.”
Vu’s father, Doug, was her coach through junior golf and had shared that she followed her older brother as a child in starting her golf career. Her brother wanted to play soccer but had to find an alternative due to asthma.
Vu holds the record at UCLA for the most career victories with eight individual titles. She won three tournaments on the Epson Tour after failing to keep her LPGA Tour card following her rookie year in 2019—having made just one cut out of nine tournament starts.
Regarding her rookie year, “I was in a negative mindset, even my rookie year I didn’t feel like I belonged. I felt every shot was life or death. ... I was so nervous,” said Vu. “Now I just try to play one shot at a time and have fun...my parents are my number one supporters, they always believed in me even when I was rock bottom and was about to quit golf.”
Temperatures were in the 90s all week, but Sunday’s wind gusts up to 30 mph impacted Vongtaveelap.
“It was windier on the last day,” said Vongtaveelap. “I need to practice more on playing against the strong wind. Today’s shots were against the strong wind, so I couldn’t score well today.”
Finishing third and returning to her hometown was Atthaya Thitikul, at 20–under. Thitikul won last season’s Rookie of the Year and catapulted to the No. 1 ranking for a brief period following her second victory—and she reunited with childhood friend Vongtaveelap from junior golf in Thailand.
“It’s always special event in my career,” said Thitiku. “Had good, positive vibes here for finishing today as well. Not getting there, but all the process has been in the right direction.”
The next top American finisher was World No. 2 Nelly Korda, who was tied for 6th with World No. 1 Lydia Ko and previous No. 1 Jin Young Ko.
Celine Boutier of France and Maja Stark of Sweden tied for fourth at 17–under.
