Ariya Jutanugarn – The Alchemy of Winning

Ariya Jutanugarn rocketed up 4 places in the world rankings with her victory at the 2016 Women’s British Open. Skipping over Lexi Thompson and Brooke Henderson, she’s now Lydia Ko’s most immediate challenger.

Although we all knew a major championship was coming for Jutanugarn and it was a matter of when rather than if, Woburn was a stunning win for the 21-year old Thai, who has become the first major champion for a country that’s only recently discovered the game of golf.

Jutanugarn has been knocking on the major championship door all season. There was that near-miss 4th place finish at the ANA Inspiration in March after she stubbed her toe in the final round, not able to close the deal. Then came her romp through the LPGA’s May events – 3 consecutive wins – followed by that 3rd place finish at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in June. It was the +4 2nd round 75 that did her in at Sahalee, but she recovered nicely to finish with two sub-par rounds, right behind Brooke Henderson and Lydia Ko.

In many ways Sahalee was apocryphal, suggesting that Jutanugarn might be ready to expand the Big Three of women’s golf – Ko, Henderson, and Lexi Thompson – into the Big Four. But then she couldn’t follow Sahalee with a victory at CordeValle. In fact, Jutanugarn finished the US Women’s Open with an unimpressive even-par T17 and the Ariya-watchers paused and took a deep breath.

Jutanugarn returned to form at the Marathon Classic and although she and Mirim Lee fell to the cooler hand and keener eye of Lydia Ko in the playoff, it was clear to me that she’d recovered that elusive component of championship play, self-confidence.

After a slight detour to the Merit Club the young Thai who had knocked on the door 3 times this season was primed for the win at Woburn, and she delivered.

Ariya Jutanugarn played above her game at the Women’s British Open, or she elevated her game to a new level, depending on how you look at these things. Although her drives were on average about 10 yards shorter, she was still longer than just about everybody but Lexi Thompson; and she was more accurate off the tee than she’s been all year. Just to put the icing on the cake, she was getting to the putting surface at warp speed. With the exception of some trouble in the middle of her final round, Ariya Jutanugarn never took her foot off the pedal.

.@jutanugarn key @RICOHWomensBrit stats @WoburnGC that helped her to win her Maiden Major #RWBO16 #Thailand #Golf pic.twitter.com/fGj3qtOscn

— Ladies European Tour (@LETgolf) August 1, 2016

Jutanugarn was pressed hard by Mirim Lee – who held the lead through 36 holes and is also knocking at the door – and by some of the game’s brightest and most mature stars. Mo Martin, Karrie Webb, Catriona Matthew and Stacy Lewis, all past Women’s British Open champions, wanted the 2016 Championship for themselves, and they were all playing flat out.  They couldn’t catch her. Jutanugarn’s game held. She stayed solid and on point.

When the world rankings were revised Jutanugarn found herself knocking on another door. Does she have the game to unseat Lydia Ko from the top of the rankings?

Keeping in mind that Jutanugarn delivered a game at Woburn that exceeded her player stats for the season, let’s take a look at some of the more critical indicators.

Jutanugarn is about $500K behind Ko in year-to-date winnings. If she maintains her pace, with 10 Tour events remaining to be played in the 2016 season that deficiency will remedy itself, as will number of top-10 finishes and wins.

Even when she eschews driver and dials back on distance, Ariya Jutanugarn is longer off the tee than Lydia Ko and, as we saw at Woburn, when she dials it back her accuracy increases and she surpasses Ko. In face, she starts looking a bit like Mo Martin who leads the Tour in accuracy off the tee.

Jutanugarn also has the ability to get to the green faster than Ko simply because she has more distance in her approach shots than Ko, and their putting is equivalent. So in a purely technical sense, going forward into the final events of the 2016 season Jutanugarn has the advantage; and we’ve watched her confidence blossom and then fully bloom over the past 12 weeks.

Jutanugarn and Ko will next meet in Rio on the Olympic golf playing ground. It should be a splendid contest between two quite stunning young athletes! Who are you betting on?

Cover Image via Twitter