Ahead of Atthaya Thitikul having the chance to wrap up the 2021 Race to Costa del Sol title, we sat down with the Thai teenager to speak about her career so far, inspiring the next generation and her mentality on the golf course.
Sometimes it’s hard to remember that Atthaya Thitikul is still only 18-years-old.
The teenage talent already has four LET titles and a top five Major finish to her name, as well as boasting a lead at the top of the Race to Costa del Sol rankings of over 1000 points.
And all this done with the biggest smile on her face.
The Thai star can always be seen lighting up the fairways and greens on tour with her infectious grin and nonstop laughing, all while producing amazing results on the course.
Because as well as her two LET wins this season – the Tipsport Czech Ladies Open and VP Bank Swiss Ladies Open – Thitikul has been a constant name among the leaders this year, with her impressive consistency seeing her finish in the top five in nine competitions in 2021.
That included a mesmerising display at the Amundi Evian Championship in July, where a barnstorming final round of 65 (-6) gave her a fifth-placed finish in only her second time at the tournament.
And after starting the year outside the top 100 of the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, Thitikul finds herself ranked 28th in the global game at time of writing, and she’s only showing signs of getting better.
But for the young girl growing up in Ratchaburi – a Thai province 100km West of Bangkok – things could have been so very different.
“When I was young, my health was not that good, and I would always get sick when the weather changed and then they wanted me to play a sport to help my health,” Thitikul begins.
“They found a sport that can also be your career as well as an individual sport – so the options were golf and tennis.”
But instead of serves and volleys, Thitikul chose a life of bogeys and – in her case especially – birdies and has barely taken a step wrong since her grandfather got her involved with the sport at the age of six.
And despite five hours on course looking like a breeze compared to the constant trudging up and down of baselines, the rising star realised there is just as much that goes on without a club in hand as with it.
“I thought tennis was going to be really tough and hard because you have to run all the time! I told them that we’ll stick with golf, and they took me to learn with professionals. I really liked it and I stuck with it.
“I found out golf is not that easy. Tennis you have to use your whole body, but golf you have to use your body, your mind and your everything. I think with golf, it is a sport that you can’t expect anything with it.”
The talent that oozes through Thitkul’s veins seems to have been there right from the very start, having taken victory in her first ever competition, and from there her stock continued to rise.
While she was being inspired by her compatriots Ariya and Moriya Jutanugarn, as well as Pornanong Phatlum dazzling on the highest stage, Thitikul was starting her own golfing journey, which soon began to skyrocket in the summer of 2014.
Having already made a name for herself in her home country, the local talent was invited to the 2017 Ladies European Thailand Championship just four months after her 14th birthday.
And what happened next was about to take the golfing world by storm.
The teenager was incredible that week, with the pressure of the biggest stage having little effect as she kept her name near the top of the leaderboard day after day after day.
With 18 holes to play, she was trailing Mexico’s Ana Menendez by a single shot, but where her adversary fell away, the home favourite continued to blossom – and eventually took the win by two shots.
All at just 14 years, four months, and 19 days old.
Even at that moment you could tell this wasn’t just a flash in the pan, this was the beginning of a star being born, with an ice-cool temperament even when the pressure is on.
And she was going to need to use that cool, calm, collected approach to its fullest in the following months, as the next chapter of her golfing odyssey began. Now the golfing world had sat up and taken notice of the next sensation within its mitts.
“After I won the Ladies European Tour title, my life changed. It gave me lots of chances to go to compete in the British Open, the Evian Championship and it gave me a lot of experience when I was young,” Thitikul said.
“That gave me a lot of confidence with playing golf and kept my momentum going. It was pretty incredible to get that win.
“It is a dream come true to play in a Major when I was 14 and I made the cut! I made the cut at Evian Championship, so I was like ‘Oh my god this is not a dream, this is reality’ and then you realised you had to enjoy every single moment of it and it will be a big experience for me.”
And that final sentence is one that rings true for everything Thitikul does in her life, whether she is lifting the trophy at the end of an event or missing out in a nail-biting playoff – just as she did to Marianne Skarpnord in the Aramco Team Series – London event earlier this year – you can tell she is enjoying every moment.
When the Norwegian’s putt went in on the second extra hole at Centurion Club – after the duo were locked on -13 after three gruelling days on course – the young star held decorum like a seasoned pro, waiting for the hubbub to die down before congratulating a celebrating Skarpnord, and then making her way off course.
That sense of goodwill is just another example of Thitikul’s wise head on young shoulders, with her relaxed, laissez-faire attitude a breath of fresh air, although that doesn’t mean she isn’t any less determined to achieve her goal of becoming one of the best in the game.
And after taking a Covid-enforced break throughout 2020, where she won a number of tournaments in Thailand as international travel came to a standstill, she is back and ready to mix it with the best for years to come after turning professional 20 months ago.
“I think I’m suited to playing golf when I enjoy it. If it I take it seriously or if I take it so serious or don’t smile, I wouldn’t play well.
“I realised that every day that you play golf you can’t expect anything with it and you have to enjoy every single moment of it when you’re on the course. Take it simple, take it easy.
‘If you play bad, you play bad, but you always have tomorrow. If you play good, just keep going and make yourself more confident for tomorrow.
“When you’re going to be a professional golfer you want to be number one and want to be a better golfer you have to work hard on your game more than you were as an amateur.
“I really worked hard last year and it’s paying off this year. For this year, I didn’t expect my results. Me and my coach have goals, I want to be a better golfer and want to be better every single day, so I just get all the experience and then go to fix some mistakes that I do.”
Having played at the highest level for such a large proportion of her life, the trials and tribulations of competing at the top of the leaderboard almost seem to come as second nature to the 2021 Tipsport Czech Ladies Open winner.
But despite spending so much time on the road, with countless hours spent at the range, on the putting green, on the chipping green, perfecting every minuscule move of the muscles, Thitikul knows what happens on course isn’t the be all and end all, although that isn’t always easy to put into practice come game day.
“I’m trying to have a mindset that don’t take it really serious or think too much because if you play not that good, it’s not the end of your life and your life is still going. Golf is part of your life but it’s not your whole life.
“I have been in competition a lot as an amateur and I was in the Thailand national team. I will always be in the right spot to what everyone expects on my game and expects on myself.
“I have struggled with it as well. When my brain is thinking is too much, my body language and brain thinking about the result and the expectations that everyone else puts onto me – not my own expectations.
“I didn’t play good and I realised that with 100 people there are 100 ways of thinking. It is not your expectations, your own expectations should just be yours and no one else’s.
“I know that other people are cheering you and supporting you, they want you to be good and it’s good. But at that time, they are also expecting from you as well.”
With the Jutanugarn sisters, as well as ISPS Handa Invitational Presented by Modest! Golf winner Pajaree Anannarukarn all constantly battling for supremacy, Thitikul has some quality compatriots for company at this moment in time, with Thailand becoming a hotbed for many young talents in the game.
With the eyes of a nation constantly on her every move, there will be a lot of expectation on Thitikul in the future, but that is something she will no doubt thrive off of as she aims to do the red, white and blue flag of her country proud.
At 18-years-old it might be too early to start talking about legacies, but there will be more than a handful of children inspired to pick up the drivers and irons by their countrywoman performing so admirably.
And it comes as no surprise that Thitikul has one message for anyone looking to get involved with the game in the future – just be yourself!
“I’m really proud of myself for representing my country on the highest stage and I really enjoy being Thai and I’m really proud to be Thai and to be one of the players playing for our country.
“I really want to be a role model for them. I want to inspire them to be good golfers and golfers in the future.
I don’t want to inspire them to be exactly like me, I want to inspire them in their own way and that they can be good enough because everyone has a chance to be a professional golfer, have a chance to represent their country and have a chance to win tournaments.
“Don’t compare yourself to anyone. Everyone has a good thing in themselves.”
