Mim Sangkapong carded a low-round 66 on Friday at the renowned Black Mountain Golf Club to snatch the BGC Thailand Ladies Masters victory. The event is co-sanctioned by the Taiwan LPGA Tour and the Thai WPGA Tour.

The 26-year-old used a 54-hole total of 11-under 205 to emerge as the winner by one shot. This is her second Thai WPGA Tour victory this year. The win is worth THB$600,000 (NT$540,000).

Thanita Muangkhumsakul and Wad Phaewchimplee finished in solo second and third at 10-under and 9-under respectively.

Patcharajutar Kongkraphan, 2022 Thai WPGA Tour money winner as well as a three-time Taiwan LPGA Tour champion in the 2023 season, closed the week with a final-round 69 and wrapped it up in solo fourth.

Achiraya Sriwong finished as the low amateur this week with a three-round total of 209, which put her in equal fifth on the leaderboard.

Sangkapong, winner of the SAT-NSDF Thai LPGA Classic in March, has been testing herself also on the Ladies European Tour these past two seasons. Her best outing on the LET so far has been a T14.

Heading into today in the lead, Taiwan’s Chen Yu-Ju (陳宇茹) lost her position just two holes into the final round after spending a whopping nine shots on the par-5 2nd where she faced a water penalty and a three-putt.

Although Chen scored three birdies around the turn to return into the top flight, she took another significant hit when she got caught by the sand traps in consecutive holes to go bogey and double-bogey on the 14th and 15th.

She closed the round finally with a 75, pushing her down into a tie for seventh on 6-under 210. “I wasn’t finding my targets on the tees today. The ball tended to fly to the left, into some new spots that I hadn’t played from during the last couple of days,” said Chen.

“But honestly, for me, winning was never the only goal. I’ve still got lots of positives to take away from the first to rounds. I feel I’m slowly reaching back my peak confidence level that I got in about three years ago before all the Covid mess.”

Babe Liu (劉嬿) refocused, after making a double-bogey plus a bogey on no. 9 and no.10, and fired five birdies on the back nine to seal her final-round in red figure with a 2-under 70, which helped her to wrap it up in the top-8. She needed just 27 putts.

Chang Ya-Chun (張雅淳) completed the final-round with a 70 as well, which is composed of three birdies and one bogey, and finished in T10. “I played a solid round, missed just one green. But I should have hit more bravely on the greens. I felt the holes were placed in some challenging locations, so I didn’t risk as much as I probably should.”

Chang passed the first qualification round for the LPGA Tour last week and flew back to Asia in Hua Hin just in time for the tournament.

This season-ending THB$4 million (NT$3.6 million), 54-hole tournament at the Black Mountain is recognized by the WWGR (World Women’s Golf Rankings), which featured 30 elite Taiwan LPGA members and 90 professional players from host Thailand and six other countries.