Staff WriterOn a day when Siam Country Club looked more like a pin-seeking arcade than a championship golf course, Honda LPGA Thailand turned into Somi Lee’s personal highlight reel as the Korean fired a jaw-dropping, career-best 11-under-par 61 to grab the halfway lead and rewrite the record book.
By the time she walked off the 18th green, Lee had tied the tournament’s 18-hole scoring mark, smashed the 36-hole record, and left the rest of the field wondering whether they’d accidentally signed up for a video game instead of an LPGA event.
Lee’s life-low 61 and a new standard at Siam
If you’re looking for flaws, you won’t find them on Somi Lee’s scorecard. She went bogey-free, racking up nine birdies and an eagle at the par-5 15th, hitting 14 of 14 fairways, 16 of 18 greens in regulation, and needing only 25 putts. That’s not a round of golf; that’s a crime scene.
Her 61 ties the Honda LPGA Thailand tournament 18-hole record first set by Akie Iwai in 2025, and her 36-hole total of 127 now stands alone as the best in event history.
No surprise then that Lee walked off slightly dazed by her own brilliance: “I had the best score of my life today so I’m a little emotional. But since the competition is not over and there is still two more days left, I just want to celebrate this a little bit.”
You can’t blame her for wanting to pop a metaphorical champagne cork, but the numbers say the party is only just getting started. This is already her third time leading or co-leading after 36 holes on the LPGA. The previous two – at The 2025 Amundi Evian Championship (T14) and the 2025 Mizuho Americas Open (T11) – didn’t turn into wins. This one feels different.
From KLPGA force to LPGA record-breaker
Lee’s sudden surge at Honda LPGA Thailand is less “out of nowhere” and more “right on schedule”. The Rolex Rankings No. 38 player has quietly been building a serious résumé:
- 2026 Race to CME Globe Rank: 9
- 2026 LPGA Tour Top-10s: 1
- 2026 Official Season Earnings: $45.2K
- Career LPGA Wins: 1
- Career LPGA Top-10s: 10
- Career Earnings: $2.3M
She became a Rolex First Time Winner at the 2025 Dow Championship alongside Jin Hee Im, earned her LPGA card via T2 at Q-Series in 2024, and arrived with five wins already on the KLPGA. This is only her second appearance at the Honda LPGA Thailand after finishing T41 last year; she’s clearly decided to get to know the place a little better.
Now she’s not only leading the tournament at 17-under-par, she’s holding every meaningful scoring record she can get her hands on.
Birthday birdiefest: Jeeno Thitikul’s 63 keeps the pressure on
If Lee was writing the headline, Jeeno Thitikul was scribbling something very loud in the margins. The Thai star ripped around Siam in nine-under-par 63, with seven birdies and an eagle at the 7th, and she’s still bogey-free through 36 holes.
She hit 13 of 14 fairways, 15 of 18 greens, and, like Lee, needed just 25 putts. It also happens to be her best round ever at Honda LPGA Thailand, edging out her previous best of 64 (recorded in 2025, 2023 and 2021). Not a bad way to turn 23.
And just in case the scoreboard didn’t already feel like a birthday card, the galleries joined in: “They’re going to sing just only birdie putts. Just only birdie drops and then they all sing it.
Obviously nice to have a lot of birdies today, which is hear a lot of happy birthday. The most time in my life. But obviously it’s just really good memories that I have created with them on my birthday on the golf course again.”
At 14-under-par, Thitikul is three shots back and clearly enjoying every second of it. If Lee glances in the rear-view mirror this weekend, Jeeno is the one with the lights on full beam.
Chizzy’s inspired 62 and Lydia Ko’s smooth return
Two shots further back, Chizzy Iwai and Lydia Ko share third at 13-under-par, both delivering the sort of rounds that would lead most weeks and barely make a dent in the Honda LPGA Thailand record chase.
Iwai produced the best round of her career: a 10-under-par 62, bogey-free with 10 birdies, hitting 13 of 14 fairways, 17 of 18 greens, and taking 26 putts. If that sounds familiar, it should – her twin sister Akie Iwai finished runner-up here in 2025 and jointly held the 18-hole scoring record until Lee matched it.
Chizzy didn’t need a sports psychologist to explain her motivation: “I saw so many Akie photo in the golf course so that inspired me.”
Ko, meanwhile, looked like Lydia Ko again. She posted an 8-under-par 64, bogey-free with six birdies and an eagle at the 15th, hitting 13 of 14 fairways and 16 of 18 greens with 28 putts, all in her first start at this event since 2023, when she finished T6.
Her assessment sounds like a woman who knows exactly where her game has been misbehaving – and what to do about it: “Yeah, it’s been a lot of solid golf. We’ve had a couple weeks off since our last event, so even though I played well at HGV it’s hard to know where the game is heading.
The last two days have been nice to see what we have been working on pay off on the course. Yeah, my ball striking is something that we’ve been trying to dial down, and especially my iron play. I think I had like my worst iron greens in regulation stats these past couple years, so that was something that was really high on my attention list.
It’s been a while since I hit 16 greens, so definitely nice to come off with a round like that. Yeah, especially with Jeeno playing well today I felt like the whole group was really able to get in a good momentum and make a lot of birdies out there.”
When Lydia Ko is hitting 16 greens and smiling about it, the weekend usually gets interesting.
Birdies everywhere: how Siam Country Club is playing
If you’re wondering whether the golf course has a say in this, Hannah Green – sitting at T5 on 12-under-par – offered the local weather report: very favourable with a chance of birdies.
“Yeah, the par-5s are playing a little different to usual. They’re actually a lot easier to reach besides the 18th hole, which they moved back the tee, but there is just so many birdies to be made.
Every green has its quirks to it, but when you can see that ball roll in I feel like that gives you massive confidence. I feel like that’s what ever you know was doing today, taking advantage of that. We see every year the scores are always super low, so hopefully I can keep my foot on the gas and try and catch Somi.”
Down the board but worth watching, Mi Hyang Lee sits at T8 on 11-under-par, doing her best impression of a putting clinic despite a sore shoulder: “My putt was so hot. I’m glad to make a lot of putt, and then also I missed only two greens and 25 putts. Totally that means my shot was good too, but my putt was so hot. And then also I got the right shoulder injury and it’s not 100% yet, so I couldn’t do full swing yet, but still really happy to play back in here.”
When players can’t swing full but still shoot double digits under par for the week, you know Honda LPGA Thailand is living up to its reputation as a low-scoring shootout.
Defending champ struggles, local amateur learns fast
At the other end of the spectrum, defending champion Angel Yin has some work to do. After a 3-over second round featuring four bogeys and just one birdie, she sits at T58, a long way from the 54-hole (195) and 72-hole (260) tournament scoring records she set in 2025.
Thai amateur and sponsor invite Prim Prachnakorn is at T64 after rounds of 74–72 for 146. There’s more than pride at stake: if she can climb into the top 40 by week’s end, she’ll earn a valuable LEAP point as part of the pathway for emerging Thai talent.
Records on the line as the weekend looms
With the 18-hole (61) and 36-hole (127) records now in Somi Lee’s pocket, the remaining marks – 54 holes (195, Angel Yin and Nanna Koerstz Madsen) and 72 holes (260, Angel Yin) – are squarely in play heading into the weekend at Honda LPGA Thailand.
Lee has the form, the lead and a golf course that clearly agrees with her. Thitikul has the crowd, the birthday buzz and a bogey-free card. Behind them, Iwai, Ko, Green and a handful of hot putters are all close enough to turn this into a back-nine brawl on Sunday.
For now, though, Honda LPGA Thailand belongs to Somi Lee – a five-time KLPGA winner turned LPGA record-breaker who just posted the best round of her life and still insists she’s only “celebrating this a little bit.”
If that’s her idea of a little, the rest of the field may not want to see what she does for an encore.
