the course was defenceless<\/a> against world-class players hungry to begin their 2026 season in style. Korean Lee Mi-Hyang emulated Jeeno\u2019s 63 while there were no fewer than four 64s, seven 65s, one 66, four 67s, seven 68s and nine 69s.<\/p>\nOut in seven-under 29, Lee So-Mi made further gains at 10 and 11. Three pars followed before she holed a 20-footer for an eagle-two at 15 to put a sub-60 return within the realms of possibility.<\/p>\n
However, a birdie chip at 16 lipped out and she narrowly failed with a putt for a three at 17. That meant she needed to eagle the par-five 18th to become only the second player in LPGA Tour history to shoot a 59, after Swede Annika Sorenstam in 2001.<\/p>\n
Short in two at the dog-leg left closing hole, Lee struck a sweet wedge approach that flew just left of the flag, leaving her a 12-foot downhiller for a birdie and a 60. Although that effort did not drop, the 27-year-old was thrilled \u2014 and somewhat stunned.<\/p>\n
Lee won the Dow Championship last year in partnership with compatriot Im Jin-Hee but is still awaiting her maiden solo LPGA Tour triumph.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had the best score of my life, so I\u2019m a little emotional,\u201d she said after Friday\u2019s round. \u201cAs there are still two more days to go at this tournament, I\u2019ll only celebrate a little bit.\u201d (Story continues below)<\/p>\n
![\"World](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/5976685.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
World No.1 Jeeno Thitikul of Ratchaburi celebrated her 23rd birthday with a nine-under par 63 on the second day of the Honda LPGA Thailand.<\/p>\n
For a while, Jeeno, playing four groups ahead of Lee, also looked like she might challenge Sorenstam\u2019s historic mark as she raced to eight-under through 11 holes.<\/p>\n
Only one further birdie at the 18th followed, but Jeeno was delighted to spend such a special day for her in the company of many hundreds of the Jeeno Thitikul Fan Group. Every time the world No.1 made birdie, spectators broke into a chorus of Happy Birthday to You.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s special to spend my birthday in my home country \u2014 and it was nice to have a lot of birdies,\u201d said Jeeno, whose round was highlighted by an eagle-three at the seventh and seven birdies. \u201cThat\u2019s why I heard so many happy birthday songs, the most in my life! I think I\u2019ve created good memories with the spectators.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of her bogey-free performance over the first two days, she said: \u201cI know where to miss, where not to go. And for the past two days I\u2019ve been in a good position, where I want my ball to be. If you can put the ball where it\u2019s not too risky, it should be not a big problem at this golf course.\u201d<\/p>\n
Comparatively speaking, it was not such a good day for Thailand\u2019s Chanettee Wannasaen and Japan\u2019s Nasa Hataoka, who set the pace on day one with 65s. On day two, both bogeyed the 18th, with Chanettee signing for a one-under 71 and Hataoka settling for a 72.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Korean finishes at 11-under to take 3-shot lead over Thai favourite PUBLISHED : 20 Feb 2026 at 17:48…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[159027,5904,157813,159029,159028,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-436084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-attaya-thitikul","tag-golf","tag-honda-lpga-thailand","tag-lee-so-mi","tag-siam-country-club-old-course","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Lee](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/c1_3201655_800.jpg\")
<\/p>\n