Piers Manktelow
LPGA- HONDA LPGA THAILAND 2018 PREVIEW

HONDA LPGA THAILAND 2018 LPGA TOUR
So far we have been to the Bahamas and Australia and now we are in Thailand for the 2018 Honda LPGA event. The strongest field of the season has gathered as the top 6 in the World Rolex Rnakings are playing this week. No. 1 Shanshan Feng, No. 2 Sung Hyun Park, No. 3 So Yeon Ryu, No. 4 Lexi Thompson, No. 5 Anna Nordqvist and No. 6 In Gee Chun.

Amy Yang (above) from South Korea is the defending champion. She led from start to finish to clinch her 2nd Honda Thailand victory. She has to be considered here after starting the season strongly finishing T3rd in the Bahamas and her love of winning in Thailand.
World number 1 Shanshan Feng of China makes her 2nd start of the season after a T3rd with Amy in the Bahamas. She finished last year extremely strongly with a 3rd, 2nd, 1st, 1st and 21st place finish in her last 5 events. However, she does tend to start the season slower than she finishes. Lets see if she can buck the trend this week.

Sunh Hyun Park of South Korea had a rookie season to remember in 2017, winning rookie of the year and the US Open. This is her first event of the year but she did finish 3rd place here last year.
Number 3, 27 year old So Yeon Ryu also of South Korea has played in both tournaments so far this season finishing 11th and 7th. She will be certain to bring her good form into this week.
Lexi Thompson the first American on the list will be looking to have a great 2018 after an adventurous 2017. After winning the CME race to the Globe last year will Lexi pick up her first victory here? She finished 6th in the Bahama and tied 4th here last year.

Anna Nordqvist of Sweden and In Gee Chun of South Korea will be sure to put in strong performances as well.
From the rest of the field, the ones to watch this week surly have to be Jin Young Ko, last weeks wire to wire winner from South Korea and Minjee Lee who won the first event of the LET in her native Australia and has had a very strong start to the 2018 season.
We haven't even mentioned the Jutanugarn sisters yet. The home favorites from Thailand are sure to put in a good performance for the crowds. Ariya 22, ranked world number 8 won the final event of last season at the Tour Champs. After a 54th place finish in the Bahamas she improved with a T7th in Australia. She finished T8th here last year. Sister Moriya 23, is ranked 21st in the world and was 7th last year. This year she has started the season 31st and 19th so improvement is needed for her to challenge, however, with the backing of the home crowd anything is possible.
Best friends Michele Wie and Danielle Kang (above) had promising starts in the Bahamas and will fancy picking up an early season victory. Big things are expected of both these women this year so an early will win will really kick start their 2018.
Other ones to keep an eye on are English rookie Georgia Hall who has had a strong start to the season and 18 year old Chinese player Muni He who we have tipped as one to watch for 2018.


As you can see it is such as strong field this week. All of who have had strong finishes here in the past. It looks impossible to call but we are going to give it a go. Our pick this week goes to Shanshan Feng, we believe the world number 1 will have what it takes to hold off the strong competition.
Predictions
This week: Shanshan Feng
Previous: Brooke Henderson (9th)
Cheyenne Woods (34th)