16-year-old Kanphanitnan Muangkhumsakul captured her second TLPGA Tour victory at the eighth annual Hitachi Ladies Classic after a perfect final-round of 66 to finish at a three-round total of 10-under-par, beating defending champion Pornanong Phatlum and Taiwan’s Cheng Ssu-Chia (程思嘉) by three shots.

This is Muangkhumsakul’s biggest win in her 2-year professional career, which rewarded her a prize check worth NT$2.5 million. She won her maiden TLPGA Tour title in 2014 at the Party Golfers’ Open when she was just 15.

Writing off compatriot Phatlum’s prospects of a fourth consecutive Hitachi Ladies Classic crown, Muangkhumsakul, nevertheless, has continued the dominance of the Thai contingent which has allowed only one win for the rest of the world over the last six years here at the Orient Golf & Country Club.

Phatlum and Cheng mirrored each other’s paths of 70-71-68 209s to share the second-place at 7-under, bagging themselves a NT$900,000 check each. 18-year-old Cheng, as the top Taiwanese finisher, was awarded a wild card entry into the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic to be held in April, provided by the Swinging Skirts Golf Team.

“I feel really appreciative of the help and love of my parents, especially my dad who’s always been caddying for me. Without his company, I would not reach what I am reaching now. And so is my mom, she is always there for me wherever I go,” said Muangkhumsakul, whose main focuses for this year will be the TLPGA Tour as well as the Ladies European Tour (LET), where she will be going as a rookie member and her ambition is to finish the year inside the top 18 on Order of Merit to further secure her 2017 membership.

It has been a neck-to-neck affair on Sunday between Muangkhumsakul and Cheng early on. Cheng was 1 shot behind the wire-to-wire leader starting the day but went out in full force as she fired four birdies in six holes to tie the lead from the 5th hole on. Cheng went birdie-bogey after the turn, playing in the second to last group, on Hole 10 and 11 to remain at 7-under. However, in the meantime Muangkhumsakul, using her 7-wood on the second shot, knocked the ball from 190 yards to just 4 feet to the flag on the par-5 10th and calmly drained the eagle putt which gained her a two-shot advantage and more importantly, a huge psychological edge. “That eagle kind of powered me through the finish line,” Muangkhumsakul said. “I tried to stay calm and made pars through 16 and I was still two shots up. It was when I really thought I could win this!”

Cheng’s winning hopes came to an end when she sent her drive wide out of bounds on the 17th. Phatlum, the only other player that could challenge Muangkhumsakul, did not make any move either on her final eight holes, sealing the game tied with Cheng and three strokes back of her young compatriot. “I tried, but it was not good enough. Kanphanitnan played a superb round,” Phatlum said.

“I put up a good round. I’m actually happy with how I played today,” said Cheng. “Some small mistakes here and there, and finally I was just three shots off. So I definitely got my chances but it was just not meant to be.”

Chinese teen star Shi Yuting (石昱婷), an overnight co-leader with Muangkhumsakul, didn’t start off well with an even-par 36 on the front and a 34 on the back with a total of three birdies and one bogey. Shi had to take 33 putts, from just 27 yesterday, which dragged her down to a solo fourth finish at 6-under 210.

Shi was equal third at the CTBC Ladies Open last September, and improved to a solo second at the TLPGA Tour’s 2015 year-end TLPGA Open where she earned a full TLPGA Tour card in 2016, becoming the first official Tour member from China. Next on Shi’s schedule will be the Yeangder TLPGA Open swinging to start on Wednesday at the Tong Hwa Golf & Country Club.

One of the main focuses for the Hitachi Ladies Classic is to help raise awareness of the causes by local charities, through the beautiful game of golf and its influence, and to shine a light on the issues which need to be noticed and cared about.

This year, the Hitachi Ladies Classic has attracted more than 6,600 fans, contributing to a ticket revenue exceeding NT$6 million which will all be used to endow local charities. The event has donated more than NT$36 million in the eight-year tournament history benefitting nine charity partners.

The NT$ 10 million season opener presented by Hitachi Ltd. and Taiwan Hitachi Co., Ltd. is the very first pro golf tour event globally and will be the first to offer any world golf ranking points as well. The points will be counted toward the Rio Olympic Games qualification.