Thai Amateur Battles Through the Pain Barrier

Southport, England: It may not have been the score he had wished for, but the mere fact that Pongsapak ‘Fifa’ Laopakdee managed to complete the opening round at the 154th Open Championship was a notable achievement in itself. As winner of the 2025 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship (AAC), Fifa earned starts at this year’s Masters Tournament and Open Championship. Having missed the half-way cut at Augusta National in April, the 21-year-old Thai arrived in the United Kingdom 12 days ago intent on making a good impression at Royal Birkdale Golf Club. However, an untimely back injury threw his plans into disarray and even threatened to force him to withdraw from the tournament. Speaking after signing for a birdie-less first-day five-over-par 75, Fifa revealed: “I got into London on the night of July 4 and did a workout the next morning. I got injured from doing a back squat lift and had muscle spasms in my lower back. It was a sharp pain and I couldn’t do a backswing. “I was fortunate to find a good physical therapist in London and also some physical therapists here in Southport. Without them, I’d probably had to have withdrawn this week.” Nonetheless, the injury meant he missed a full week of practice, during which he had been due to play a couple of rounds over the Lancashire links. “It’s just unfortunate that I got injured. I had planned to come here early last week to get used to this course and the weather. Unfortunately, it didn’t go that way and I took a week off. This Monday was the first day I came back to practice. “I was trying to do as much as possible to get ready for the whole week and I think I did a pretty good job. My body feels great right now,” said Fifa, who teed-off at 7.49 am alongside Korean Im Sung-jae and England’s Dan Brown , both of whom returned four-under 66s to share the early lead. “It’s such an amazing feeling playing in the Majors and having all these people in the grandstands. It’s only Thursday, and there’s so many people already. It was amazing. Also, playing with Sung-jae and Dan was amazing. It was unbelievable to watch both of them playing so well.” As far as his own game is concerned, Arizona State University student Fifa suffered most on the greens. He said: “I really wanted to capitalise on the morning tee time because it’s such perfect weather out there and not that much wind. I thought I could have capitalised and made some birdies and climb up the leaderboard. “Unfortunately, my pace control (on putting) wasn’t that good today. I made some great pars, but missed all my birdie opportunities. With a little pace control adjustment for tomorrow, I should be fine.”