Thailand's Porani Chutichai Wins 2011 CLPGA Yangzhou Golf Challenge

Porani Chutichai, 2011 Yangzhou Golf Challenge Champion

Porani Chutichai of Thailand proved herself the class of the field at the 2011 Yangzhou Golf Challenge, winning the event by 8 strokes over (family name first for Chinese players) Zhang Yuyang, Ye Xinning and Tanaporn Kongkiakrai. Chutichai’s 6-under winning score represented the only player in the field under par for the tournament. She opened with a 2-under 70 in round 1 to grab a 1 shot lead she never relinquished. Her wire to wire win did include a slight stumble, posting a 1-over 73 in round 2. However, she was still in good shape going into the third round.

Porani did a lot better than even or 1-under in the final round. She birdied 1, 3, 5 and 9 on the front side, against a double bogey on 8, to go out in 2-under 34. She added a long 40-foot birdie putt on the par 5 12th to go 3-under for the round. At this point victory in her sight. But as if to put an exclamation point on her win, she dropped in a 15-foot eagle putt on 17 to punctuate her 5-under 67 round. With it, she secured victory in the China LPGA’s second event of the season. It was also Porani’s 2nd win in China, following the 2007 Beijing Masters.

“I have longed for this trophy for four years. Four years is a long time, but now I got it. I’m very happy. Today I’m kind of lucky as my driving wasn’t good, but my chipping and putting is good. I wanted to have good drives into the fairways and approaches close to the pin, but today I left many long putts. But I was lucky to make many long putts and many chips up and down and made a lot of pars.”-Porani Chutichai

Final Results here: 2011 CLPGA Yangzhou Golf Challenge

FINAL ROUND PICTURES

PORANI CHUTICHAI

PENG JIE (low amateur)

YE XINNING

JESSY TANG

ZHOU QIN

LI WEI

YU OKAMURA

SECOND ROUND PICTURES

PORANI CHUTICHAI

YE XINNING

JESSY TANG

ZHOU XIN