SYLVANIA, OH – JULY 14: Thidapa Suwannapura of Thailand watches her tee shot on the third hole during the third round of the Marathon Classic Presented By Owens Corning And O-I at Highland Meadows Golf Club on July 14, 2018 in Sylvania, Ohio. (Photo by Matt Sullivan/Getty Images)

By Keely Levins
The Jutanugarn sisters are no longer the only, women from Thailand to win on the LPGA tour. After shooting 65 on Sunday at the Marathon Classic and beating Brittany Lincicome in a playoff, Thidapa Suwannapura has won her first LPGA event and becomes the third woman from Thailand to win on tour.

Suwannapura, who birdied the first playoff hole to beat Lincicome, turned professional after Q-School in 2011, and has been waiting seven years for this first win.

“I never expect it was going to be today at all,” she said. “I’ve just been struggling the whole year and tried to keep my tour card and try my best. Finally, all my work I’ve been doing has come out and shown up today.”

Before her 65-69-71-65 performance at Highland Meadows Golf Club, Suwannapura’s best finish on the LPGA was a 7th place at the 2014 Kingsmill Championship. In the 2018 season, she’s had one top-20 finish and has missed the cut in six of the 16 events she’s played.

The 25-year-old, who took up residence in Virginia, had to wait over an hour for the final group to finish. After Brooke Henderson knocked in her par putt to miss the playoff by one shot, Suwannapura and Lincicome went to the par-5 18th for the first playoff hole. Lincicome drove it into the fairway bunker off the tee and then put her next shot into a hazard. But she got up and down after her drop to make par. Suwannapura didn’t falter under the pressure of needing to make birdie, however. Her putt fell, and suddenly she had defeated a two-time major winner.

“[On the] last hole I know that she’s going to make par. I know that, so I just tried my best to make birdie, and that’s it,” Suwannapura said after the round.

For her next event, Lincicome is headed to the Barbasol Championship. It will be her first time playing against the men in a PGA Tour event.

As for Suwannapura, her win in Toledo earns her a trip to the Ricoh Women’s British Open.