Asian Tour: renewed self-confidence gives Thailand’s Rattanon a boost heading into Royal’s Cup
- Rattanon Wannasrichan credits enforced coronavirus break with helping him overcome mental struggles
- Former Thailand Open winner is part of field for this week’s tournament at Grand Prix Golf Club in Kanchanaburi
For many golfers enforced changes brought on by the coronavirus pandemic have played havoc with schedules, careers, and long-term plans, but for Thailand’s Rattanon Wannasrichan, Covid-19 has resurrected his career.
Rattanon starts as a potential contender in this week’s Royal’s Cup at Grand Prix Golf Club, the second event of the season on the Asian Tour, after an impressive start to 2022, which included narrowly losing to Korean Joohyung Kim in a dramatic sudden-death play-off at The Singapore International last month.
The turnaround in fortunes for the 26-year-old comes after two hard years, and a debilitating loss of confidence when he “could not hit” the ball.
“In 2019 I made the cut in only five Asian Tour events,” the former Thailand Open winner said. “I played many tournaments that year because I was also playing Japan Tour, but I lost my confidence to play and lost my mental capacity. I couldn’t hit my irons; I admit that I couldn’t hit the ball in 2019.”
The arrival of the pandemic and the subsequent suspension of the Tour allowed Rattanon to take a much-needed break away from the game. By his own admission he did not practice very much.
“When I didn’t play golf for a while, it made me forget about the bad shots,” he said.
Towards the end of last year, when the Tour resumed after a 20-month hiatus, Rattanon was back and working on his game with friend Annop Tangkamolprasert, brother of two-time Asian Tour winner Pavit.