A marathon week ended Sunday night at the Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play with Thailand’s Pajaree Anannarukarn emerging as the last woman standing, defeating Japan’s Ayaka Furue in the championship match, 3&1. All told, the 23-year-old competed in seven matches over five days at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas, playing the equivalent of 116 holes.

In grabbing her second career LPGA win, Anannarukarn earned the first-place prize money payout of $225,000 from the tournament’s overall purse of $1.5 million. Here is the prize money payout for each golfer who made it out of pool play into the knockout brackets at Shadow Creek.

Winner
Pajaree Anannarukarn, $225,000
Finalist
Ayaka Furue, $141,906
Semi-finalists
Linn Grant, Leona Maguire, $91,288
Quarter-finalists
Carlota Ciganda, Albane Valenzuela, Celine Boutier, Lindsey Weaver-Wright, $49,723
Round of 16
Alison Lee, Cheyenne Knight, Daniela Darquea, Anna Nordqvist, Maja Stark, Angel Yin, Perrine Delacour, Sophia Schubert, $26,949

The post Here’s the prize money payout for each golfer at the 2023 Bank of Hope Match Play appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

If a golf tournament were ever to be compared to a marathon, the Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play fits the bill. A typical event sees 72 holes in four days, yet finalists Pajaree Anannarukarn and Ayaka Furue each played 116 holes over five days under the scorching Las Vegas desert sun at Shadow Creek. Anannarukarn, 23, survived with a 3&1 win for her second career LPGA victory.

“Just looking back I’m really glad that I didn’t give up and just keep pushing myself and trying to work it back up and trying to, you know, improve on every little thing that I have to,” Anannarukarn said. “It just seems to be working well.”

The Thai native put the match away on the par-3 17th with a tee shot to inside 10 feet. Furue found the bunker and nearly holed out, her ball darting around the back of the cup and spinning out. She conceded the match.

The 2021 ISPS Handa World Invitational Winner nearly didn’t get the chance to play the weekend. Anannarukarn lost her third pool play match to Karis Davidson, 4&3, on Friday, then went straight to a sudden-death playoff against Davidson to advance to Saturday.

Anannarukarn’s par on the first playoff hole got her into the weekend. From there, Anannarukarn bulldozed through Cheyenne Knight (3&2), Carlota Ciganda (3&2), Linn Grant (3&1), and Furue to the winner’s circle.

The week turns around a challenging calendar year for Anannarukarn. The win is her third top 10 since in her past 32 starts dating to last April, and her first of 2023. She missed eight cuts in a nine-event stretch from July through October last year. No. 97 player in the Rolex World Rankings, she continues working on a “number of things”, she said, from her swing to her approach to each shot.

“When I won in Northern Ireland [ISPS Handa World Invitational] I continue playing some great golf until 2022, early of the year, and then started going down,” Anannarukarn said. “I feel like I’m trying to figure out. Golf, sometimes it’s hard to just come back up. And then I just tried every possible way just to improve my game and just keep believing, and I’m lucky that I have everyone around me that helped me and support me along the way just since day one.”

The win qualifies her for the US Women’s Open at Pebble Beach in July.

Furue’s runner-up finish mirrors last year’s result. The only matches the Japanese star lost at each tournament were in the final. The second-place finish marks the 2022 Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open winner’s fourth top five of 2023 in nine starts. Furue, who turned 23 on Saturday, never saw the 18th hole at Shadow Creek in her run to the final.

“It was the most difficult play I’ve ever had and the green was really hard and like quick and it was really hard to play well for me,” Furue said.

For Anannarukarn’s title defence next year, she already knows what to improve for 2024. She needs to start running.

“I feel like I need to work on my cardio obviously, just keeping up with that heart rate because it’s been pumping so hard on the second 18.”

The post Thailand’s Pajaree Anannarukarn caps a 116-hole week with a victory over Japan’s Ayaka Furue, 3&1 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.