LPGA rookie Akie Iwai undoubtedly earned a new fan base with her impressive performance in finishing second to Angel Yin in the Honda LPGA Thailand on Sunday. The 22-year-old Japanese star led the first two rounds of that tournament, and she and Yin had a thrilling battle on the back nine that went to the final hole.
MORE: Anna Nordqvist named European Ryder Cup captain
Unfortunately for golf fans, Akie isn’t in the field for this week’s HSBC Women’s World Championship this week in Singapore.
Iwai got into the Thailand field last week on a sponsor’s exemption, so she didn’t earn CME Globe points. She also doesn’t have an exemption for this week’s tournament, and the LPGA doesn’t have a top-10 rule on the Asia swing for these no-cut events. Normally, a top-10 finish would get the player into the next week’s tournament.
“Tough school,” noted veteran Golf Channel LPGA broadcaster Tom Abbott in a post on X.
Iwai and her identical twin sister, Chisato, played last week in the first of three events in Asia that finish with the Blue Bay LPGA in China. Akie Iwai shot a course-record 61in the final round on Sunday, making eagle on the 18th hole to finish one back. She shot a 10-under 62 in the first round and finished at 27 under to earn $158,182.
“[It was] my first time in the final group as an LPGA member, so first time happy and [it was a] good experience,” Iwai said through a translator.
Yin, who won for the second time on tour, had just learned a little bit about Iwai earlier in the week and certainly much about her in playing together for 36 holes last week.
“I didn’t know about her until the pro-am party,” Yin said. “She was up in the auction, and everyone was telling me that she was a prodigy from Japan that’s a rookie on the LPGA and also a twin. So it a lot of cool news, and then all of a sudden she shoots 10 under on Thursday. So now I know who she is for real. And I played two days with her. That helps.
She is an amazing player. Her game is awesome. Only good things to come. I assume.”
Iwai was five shots back when the final around started and she pulled into the lead with Yin on the 12th hole. Yin took the lead back on the 13th and held from there, although it was a tight battle.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
