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Nirapathpongporn, Virada

Golf is an outdoor sport where player as an individual or from varied teams strike a ball targeting a hole using various clubs. The game basically originated from Scotland and has been played for atleast five centuries in the British Isles. The two basic forms of playing golf are match play and stroke play.

LPGA stands for Ladies Professional Golf Association Tour. LPGA, in is an American organization for female professional golfers. The organization, with headquarters in Daytona Beach, Florida runs a series of weekly golf tournaments for elite female golfers from around the world from February to November each year. The LPGA was founded in 1950 by a group of 13 women. LPGA Tour's events are held in the United States.

Nirapathpongporn, Virada was born on 21 April 1982 in Bangkok, Thailand. She started playing golf at the age of 8. She credits her father Dr. Apichart Nirapathpongporn, her junior golf coach Tracy little, her college coach Dan Brooks and her agent David McConnell as the individuals most influencing her career. Her hobbies include shopping, karaoke and geography. After one attempt at the LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament, she qualified for the Tour by finishing second on the 2005 Futures Tour season-ending money list. She Represents the Honda, Bank of Ayudhya and Amata Spring Country Club.

In 2005 she, competed in 15 events on the Futures Tour and won two tournaments Jalapeno FUTURES Golf Classic and the CIGNA Chip in For A Cure Connecticut FUTURES Golf Classic. She recorded eight additional top-10 finishes and led the Futures Tour with a 70.61 scoring average. Finished the year second on the Futures Tour money list to earn her exempt card for the 2006 LPGA Tour season. In 2004, turned professional in June and competed in 12 events on the Futures Tour, where she recorded two top-10 finishes.

Nirapathpongporn played collegiate golf at Duke University. She was the 2002 NCAA, National Collegiate Athletic Association champion and was named First-Team All-American from 2001-04. In 2003, she won the U.S. Women’s Amateur and was runnerup at the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links. She also played in both the 2003 and 2004 Kraft Nabisco Championship on a sponsor exemption and tied for 21st in 2003.

Virada‘s superior approach and dedication towards the sport made her surpass the other players of her epoch and became an international celebrity and a symbol of hope to millions.

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