Atthaya favourite for rookie of year award

It’s no surprise that Atthaya Thitikul leads the race for the LPGA Tour’s rookie of the year award considering the way she has played this year.

The 19-year-old Thai star, who has a victory and six other top-10 finishes, leads South Korea’s Choi Hye-Jin by 61 points, and with the next player on the list, last week’s Women’s Scottish Open winner Ayaka Furue from Japan, nearly 470 points back, it’s essentially a two-person battle with 14 events remaining on the LPGA calendar.

Atthaya is playing in the Women’s British Open at Muirfield.

She was Thailand’s best performer at the halfway stage of the major following rounds of 71 and 69 to stay six shots off the pace.

Ahead of the Open, she said “every time I play a links course it’s a learning experience.”

Her first taste of the links challenge came in 2017 at Kingsbarns, which is about 80 miles (128km) from Muirfield,…