Virada Nirapathpongporn ( th, วิรดา นิราพาธพงศ์พร, born 21 April 1982) is a Thai former
professional golfer who won the 2003
U.S. Women's Amateur.
Nirapathpongporn was born in
Bangkok, Thailand
Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...
. She attended
Duke University, where she won the 2002
NCAA Division I Championship. She graduated in 2004 with BA degree in
psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...
. She was voted the 2004 Nancy Lopez Award as the world's top female amateur. She was also runner-up in the 2003
U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links
The U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship, often referred to as the Public Links or the Publinx, was a women's amateur golf tournament, one of 10 individual amateur championships organized by the USGA and first played in 1977. The USGA o ...
. In 2002, she also won the
Honda Sports Award as the best female collegiate golfer in the nation.
Nirapathpongporn turned professional in June 2004 to play on the
Futures Tour
The Epson Tour, previously known as the LPGA Futures Tour, and known for sponsorship reasons between 2006 and 2010 as the Duramed Futures Tour and between 2012 and 2021 as the Symetra Tour, is the official developmental golf tour of the LPGA Tour ...
. In 2005, she won two tournaments. In 2006, she was an
LPGA Tour
The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) is an American organization for female golfers. The organization is headquartered at the LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Florida, and is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of week ...
rookie and wrote a blog for lpga.com.
In late February 2011, Nirapathpongporn announced she would be retiring from competitive golf and moving back to Thailand after living in the United States for fifteen years.
Weary Virada decides to hang up her clubs
/ref>
Amateur wins
*2001 Women's Trans-National Championship
*2002 NCAA Division I Championship
*2003 U.S. Women's Amateur
Professional wins (2)
Futures Tour wins (2)
*2005 (2) Jalapeno FUTURES Golf Classic, CIGNA Chip in For A Cure Connecticut FUTURES Golf Classic
References
External links
*
Rookie blog
Virada Nirapathpongporn
Duke Blue Devils women's golfers
LPGA Tour golfers
Winners of ladies' major amateur golf championships
Golfers at the 2002 Asian Games
Virada Nirapathpongporn
Virada Nirapathpongporn
Golfers from Orlando, Florida
1982 births
Living people
Virada Nirapathpongporn
Virada Nirapathpongporn
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