Piers Manktelow
Your Weekly Roundup

Well, when you think that golf can't get better it goes and surprises you once again. What a week it has been. Check out our round up for the events below.
LPGA- ISPS Handa Women's Australian Open

The 2nd event of the LPGA season and we headed to Australia, more precisely Adelade and the Kooyonga Golf Club. A strong field gathered in Australia with a number of young Australians, Americans and South Koreans strongly fancied.
Jin Young Ko an LPGA rookie started well opening up with a 65. She never looked back and led from start to finish. She finished on -14 and winning her 2nd event on the LPGA (her first as an LPGA member) and earning $195,000.00 in the process. The 22 year old will be one to watch this year.

Katherine Kirk the veteran Australian had the joint best round of the week with a closing 65 to finish in 4th place. There were good results for other Australians as well, as Minjee Lee (above) who had won on the LET a few weeks earlier finished 5th and LPGA rookie Hannah Green continued her strong start to the season with a 3rd place finish and 4 behind ko.
2nd place went to another South Korean and 18 year old sensation (one of our ones to watch in 2018) Hyejin Choi. She is going to University in Korea this year so will play most of her season on the Korean LPGA, however, she showed exactly what she is capable of among the best in the world. The American Marina Alex finished in Tied 5th as well.

World Ranking: Jin Young Ko- 16
Next Event: Honda LPGA Thailand, Chonburi, Thailand 22/2/18
Sunshine Ladies Tour

Carrie Park made it a South Korea double this week as she sealed her third win of Sunshine Ladies Tour titles with a stunning victory in the 2018 Dimension Data Ladies Pro-Am on Sunday.
The 21-year-old came into the final round with a four shot lead . A 65 to finish extended her margin of victory to nine shots over nearest challenger Stacy Bregman.
Bregman, the Investec Property Fund Order of Merit leader mounted a late charge, as did Valeria Martinoli from Switzerland, but it was all too little, too late.
Two under at the turn, Park birdied the par four 13th and made four one-putts for four birdies on the bounce over the last four holes to blast the opposition away.
“I’m really, really happy,” said an elated Park. “This is one of my favorite events and one I’ve loves since I was still amateur. In my heart I really wanted to win, because I won’t play the rest of the Sunshine Ladies Tour. I return to Korea next week, but I am leaving on a really high note.”

Next Event: South African Women's Masters San Lameer Country Club
World Golf Association of India

Gurgaon’s 21-year-old Tvesa Malik turned in the best card of the week to run away a comfortable winner in the fourth leg of the Hero’s Women’s Pro Golf Tour on Friday. Tvesa, who turned pro last year and won twice in eight starts, shot two-under 70 to finish at six-over 222 and win by four shots over Suchitra Ramesh (74). Overnight co-leaders Saaniya Sharma (76) and Neha Tripathi (77) faded away on the final day and ended third and fourth at 227 and 228. Tvesa hit the spotlight midway through the last season, which was her rookie year. She won twice in the seventh leg at Bengaluru and then in the 12th at Delhi Golf Club. This year in each of the first three legs she finished inside Top-3. She was T-3rd at Kalhaar Blues & Greens Ahmedabad, T-2nd at BPGC Mumbai and third at Poona Club Golf Course last week. With the win in Oxford, Tvesa also zoomed to the top of the Hero Order of Merit, displacing the erstwhile leader Gursimar Badwal, who was fifth this week after being T-3rd, T-2nd and first in previous three legs. Tvesa, who was one shot behind the leaders at the start of the final round, began solidly with two pars and then a birdie on third. Two more pars later she dropped her first shot of the day on par-4 sixth hole. She made up for that quickly with a birdie on seventh, but gave away those gains on the eighth. She turned in even par 36. On the back nine, Tvesa birdied the 10th and 14th and did not drop a single shot on the stretch for a creditable 70 and a four-shot win.

Next Event: Leg 5, 20th - 23rd, Greater Noida / JayPee Greens
Ladies Philippine Golf Tour

Pavarisa Yoktuan pounced on Dottie Ardina’s wobbly start to fashion out a lopsided wire-to-wire seven-stroke victory in the ICTSI Splendido Ladies Classic yesterday, becoming the second Thai player to win after four legs of the 2018 Ladies Philippine Golf Tour.
Bracing for a fierce final round duel with the local ace, Yoktuan hardly found a challenge, pulling away by five despite a par-game at the turn as Ardina self-destructed with three bogeys in a birdie-less frontside stint despite near-ideal condition at the rolling Splendido Taal Golf Club course.
It was cruise control for the Thai bet from there as Ardina failed to rebound with three more bogeys against a lone birdie and Yoktuan scooted home to victory in sweltering heat past noon with a closing 72 on a two-birdie, two-bogey stint for a 54-hole total of 210 worth P150,000.
“It’s a nice feeling to win here for the first time,” said the 24-year-old Yoktuan who placed third in last week’s ICTSI Eagle Ridge Invitational won by Chihiro Ikeda in a three-hole playoff over Korean amateur Lee Ji Hyeon. “The greens were fast but overall, the course was in perfect shape.”
Next Event: March 14 - 16, 2018ICTSI Tagaytay Highlands Ladies ChallengeTagaytay Highlands Golf & CC
Global Junior Golf
A little nod to the opening event of the the Global Junior Golf season. The event was won by Kazakhstan player Rivekka Dzhumagulova beating Natlaiya Guseva by 3 shots. These girls are very talented youngsters and it will be interesting to keep an eye on both their progress.

Updated Rolex Rankings are below. South Korean Hye Jin Choi 🇰🇷 (one of our 2018 10 to watch) moves into the worlds top 10 at the age of 18!! Other big movers are Jin Young Go 🇰🇷 (16) last weeks winner on the LPGA and Georgia Hall (Eng) (31).
