Speaking to the media yesterday and for the first time after pictures of their engagement ceremony spread on social media, the 31-year-old said he would take Pornpimon  or “Jaa” to meet his parents to discuss their wedding after his title defence in Thailand on October 6.

Their engagement came a big surprise to his fans and the boxing scene after he broke up with long time girlfriend Patchareewan Kanha in May.

“The engagement took place fast as I wanted to prove to her that I take this relationship seriously. I didn’t want history to repeat itself,” Srisaket said in reference to the painful break-up of his previous relationship, which he said had already ended when he began his new romance.

Pornpimon, who was born in Chumphon province, was not present during the announcement at the Nakhornluang Promotion camp in Bangkok.

“I didn’t announce it [the engagement ceremony] to the public as I preferred to make an official announcement just once, in today’s press conference,” he added.

“I believe she is the one for me. I like her because she is straightforward and always gives me support.”

Srisaket is vowing to defend his crown against a still-to-be-named at Impact Muang Thong Thani.

The 22-year-old phenomenon, who became the first Thai golfer to win a major at the 2016 British Open, began the day tied for the lead with South Korea’s Amy Yang and ended it a stroke clear of Australian Minjee Lee, who clung on tenaciously after also firing a 66.

“It means a lot to me. I said this week to my caddie I want to win once on a links course and I did it and it is a dream come true,” Ariya told LPGA.com.

Ariya will head to next week’s British Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes with a significant boost to her confidence, but she warned that her victory on a links course did not make her a racing certainty to be a title contender.

“Still tough for me and I will have to be patient,” she said.

“I have a pretty good feeling so hope next week to play my A game.”

Ariya’s victory — her third this year — will see her go top of the world rankings for a second time in her career on Monday, having spent two weeks in top spot in June 2017.

“It means a lot to me to be number one but last time it didn’t help me thinking about it too hard, so I am just going to work on my game.”

Yang, one of a plethora of Korean golfers in the mix, never got going and dropped away to finish tied for fifth on seven-under after a 73 to put a dampener on the weekend of her 29th birthday.

American Tiffany Joh, who set the pace for the first two rounds before failing to cope at all with the gusting wind while shooting 80 on Saturday, rebounded slightly to finish tied for eighth on five-under having carded a 70.

 The current Order of Merit leader on the South African sunshine Tour overcame a few hiccups to fire seven birdies against a bogey and a double bogey on the 13th for a final 67 and a total 14-under-par 266. He made his Tour debut 15 days ago in the Indonesia Open and ended up winning.

“It’s been a good little run, I can’t really put it into words right now. Two weeks ago was a surprise, but obviously I’ve been playing nicely. To win in Indonesia was pretty awesome and to double that this week is very really special,” said Harding who took home US$90,000 as winner.

HARDING AND SHIV KAPUR 

“I had my eyes on the leader’s board the whole time and saw the guys catching up. But it just pushed me to want to do better. I had a couple of hiccups, like hole 13 I hit a poor shot, that made it a bit interesting but I held my composure and made a great birdie on 15 which was a tough hole.”

Harding has been in formidable form, winning two events on the Sunshine Tour in May before his trip to Asia. He earned the nickname Hack in his youth for his habit of missing the greens. “It’s the term that I enjoy but I make more money when I don’t hack,” he quipped.

Harding’s win meant Thailand failed to make a clean sweep of home international events after three tournaments dominated by locals: Panuphol Pittayarat (Asian Tour Thailand Open in May), Kanyaluck Preedasuttijit (Ladies European Thailand Championship in June) and Jazz Janewattananond (Asian Tour Queen’s Cup in June).

CHAPCHAI NIRAT 

But the Kingdom could take solace that Chapchai Nirat, propelled by an eagle on the 11th, shot 68 to land in second on 272 along with defending champion Shiv Kapur of India (71), Australian Jake McLeod (67) and American-Japanese Kurt Kitayama (67).

“I didn’t expect anything until I got that eagle but the gap between the leader and me was too big [to close]. Overall I’m quite happy with my result this week as I’ve never played well at this course,” said the 35-year-old Chapchai who missed the cut here in the Queen’s Cup last month.

Second place is Chapchai’s best result in almost two years after he won Thongchai Jaidee Foundation in Hua Hin, in December 2016. Once a promising player on the Asian Tour with four titles to his credit, Chapchai lost his momentum when he adjusted to the narrow fairways on the Japan Tour, which affected his swing.

“I was quite down during 2016-17 when I played on the Japan Tour. My swing changed. But with advice from my coach Lakchai [Thongsripong] things are getting better. We’ve agreed that the name Chapchai would catch attention again,” said the Thai, who has posted three top five finishes this year including the Thailand Open (lone fifth) and Indonesia Open (tied third). He and the three runners-up took home US$33,000 each.

It was the biggest triumph for the 23-year-old to date, a step up from his wins in the International and Challenger series. He also settled a score with the Indonesian world No 40, who beat him in the Malaysia Masters three years ago.

“I’m overwhelmed to win the biggest title [Super 100] in my life. But my next goal is to win a Super 300 event,” said Sitthikom who suffered a knee injury at the age of 19 which kept him off the circuit for almost two years.

“I was disheartened and even doubted my badminton future during the break. I decided to have surgery as my doctor confirmed it would mean I was able to compete at the same level again,” added the 2014 Asian Games national player, No 56 in the world this week.

After surgery in 2016, intensive training brought a recurrence of the injury and another six months on the sidelines. Sitthikom finally returned to competition in mid 2017 and won his comeback event at Challenge level last December in India. Sitthikom is expected to break into the top 50 for the first time when the new rankings are updated on Thursday.

He is currently not in the national team for the upcoming Asian Games but hopes to earn a spot for the 2019 SEA Games and 2020 Olympics.

He is not in the entry list for this week’s World Championships in China but will resume action in another Super 100 event Vietnam next week.

Joh, who has never won on the LPGA Tour, had the misfortune along with the others who were close to the top after two rounds to go out in increasingly bad weather with gusts of wind as strong as 35 miles per hour.

It looked promising initially for 31-year-old Joh as she extended her overnight lead from three shots to four with a birdie on the second but from there on the American endured a traumatic stretch of dropping seven shots in six holes.

None of the top five were able to break par, Yang and US Open champion Ariya shooting two-over rounds of 73. They are eight-under for the tournament and hold a one-shot advantage over Australian Minjee Lee, who posted an even par 71.

Yang at least kept her game together unlike her playing partner, the unfortunate Joh, whilst Ariya holed a rare eagle on the 16th to move into the joint lead with the Korean.

AMY YANG 

“When the wind started to blow today I said, ‘here is the Scottish Open.’ Here is the real one now,” said Ariya.

“I really just want to have fun and I have so much fun today. I hit everywhere today,” added Ariya, who along with her rivals will face similar conditions on Sunday according to the forecast.

Yang made good on dropping a shot at the 17th with a birdie on the final hole to close out what was a satisfactory round on her 29th birthday.

“I totally forgot it was just my birthday,” said Yang.

“I just focused how I’m going to play, but you know, a lot of people wished me a happy birthday today.”

Hot on their trail a shot further back are a duo of Yang’s compatriots, two-time major winner Ryu So-yeon and Haeji Kang.

The best round of the day belonged to Australian Sarah Kemp, who went out in the milder conditions in the morning and shot a 67 which places her tied for 10th and five shots off the pace.

The 23-year-old former rising star who is coming back from a two-year-injury break is the only Thai hope remains in the tournament. Porntip Buranaprasertsuk lost to Mako Urushizaki of Japan 21-5 17-21 21-11 in the women’s singles semi-finals while Inkarat Apisuk and Tanupat Viriyangkura went down to Hirokatsu Hashimoto and Hiroyuki Saeki of Japan 21-18 21-19 in men’s doubles.

“I was always looking forward to playing him  (Jorgensen) as he’s been my idol for a long time. I was playing really well and I’m so glad to be in the final for the first time in Super 100 event,” said Sitthikom who is looking for the biggest win in his career when he takes on Indonesian second seeded Ihsan Maulana Mustofa on Sunday. The Thai leads his opponent 2-1 in their head-to-head series.

“I don’t want to expect anything in the final as that always took a toll on me in the past. I just have to be ready for a tough opponent who has various styles of play,” he said.

Sitthikom’s lastest title was the last year’s Tata Open Indian International which is a Challenge level tournament.

The English champions had 16 players playing in Russia with the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Vincent Kompany, John Stones, Kyle Walker , Fabian Delph, Raheem Sterling not due back until next weekend.

All players were given three weeks off from the moment their involvement in the tournament ended.

But Guardiola revealed Friday that only two of his squad will not be available for the Community Shield season opener against Chelsea on August 5.

Guardiola, speaking ahead of City’s final match of the US tour against Bayern Munich in Miami on Saturday, said: “Most of them are coming back. We have just four or five days to prepare for the first final (Community Shield) so we have to adapt.

“Some of them are coming back before, some are coming back after the final.

“We need players for the final but if they are not coming back we’ll play with the guys who are here.

“It is not an ideal situation, we prefer to be together but it is the same for Niko Kovac (Bayern manager) or for the other managers – the calendar is the calendar so we have to adapt.”

Guardiola stressed there will no major moves to improve his squad before the transfer window closes with the summer arrival of Riyad Mahrez from Leicester his only piece of business so far.

“If we do, we sign one more but in this moment we stay with what we’ve got,” said the City manager.

“It’s so expensive and we spent a lot last year because we had an old squad. Maybe one (will come in), maybe not.”

Guardiola spent three years in Munich and insisted his spell in Germany was like a “dream” – even if he failed to win the Champions League.

“I have a better perspective now that I am looking back at my time there and it’s always positive,” he said.

“In three years there are good and bad moments. The dream is to win the Champions League. We were close.I still have friends and an apartment there.

“I will never have a bad word to say about Bayern.

“It was a dream, an important part of my life and I have no regrets about what happened there.”

Playing her first event after spending a short break at home in Thailand, the former world No 1 shot six birdies to take the tied second place with Amy Yang of South Korea on 10 under-par-132.

“I think the wind picked up my back nine, so it was getting pretty tough my back nine. So it was hard to control the distance to the green.  I feel I didn’t miss a lot of putts today, but I didn’t make a lot of putts too, so I think the putting is okay,” said Ariya who was involved in promotional activities for the Tourism Authority of Thailand during the break last week.

“ I don’t know about winning, but I feel pretty good for myself. Because like links course I’ve been playing pretty good for two rounds,” Ariya added.

Joh went in search of her first title in a decade on the LPGA Tour. The 31-year-old did see her lead trimmed by a shot after a second-round 67.

Unsurprisingly, the American was unable to match her stunning first-round 62, a course record, but still hit five birdies for a total of 13-under par.

“I had pretty low expectations for today, to be honest,” Joh told the Tour’s official website on Friday. “I honestly probably would have taken anything under par, but on the first hole right away we made a 45-footer, and I just started laughing.

“I didn’t even know what to say. So yeah, it was a really good start, and I guess I just kept rolling with it.”

South Korea’s Amy Yang shot 66 to get within three off the lead.

Germany’s Caroline Masson equalled Jutanugarn’s 65 to move into fourth.

Liverpool have spent heavily this year as they attempt to close the gap on champions Manchester City, splashing out more than 200 million pounds for Alisson, Naby Keita, Fabinho, Xherdan Shaqiri and Virgil van Dijk.

Mourinho said earlier this week that Liverpool’s transfer activity ought to increase expectation of a title victory.

“Maybe this season, finally, you demand that they win,” Mourinho said during United’s pre-season tour of the United States.

“With the investments you are making last season and you make now, that will probably be the record of the Premier League this season, a team that was a finalist in the Champions League — you have to say you are a big candidate, you have to win,” added Mourinho.

Klopp, whose Liverpool side will take on Mourinho’s Manchester United in Michigan on Saturday as part of the International Champions Cup exhibition tournament, shrugged off the remarks on Friday.

“What can I say about that? Jose can say what he wants to say to be honest,” Klopp told reporters in Ann Arbor.

“I’m not too much interested in Manchester United. I’m pretty sure they will do business as well in the next few days, but we know about our responsibility.

“We feel responsible only for our fans, for our owners, for the supporters all over the world, nobody else. That’s the situation.

“We are ambitious, we never said anything different. We have to deliver – what that means exactly, I don’t know in this moment.

“But a big part of the job is to play football that our people like. That happened last year, probably the year before as well, and now we are in the situation where we want to make the next step.

“But the opponents don’t sleep. We know that. It means our life is not easier because we brought a few players in. We only feel a bit better prepared than last year. That’s all.”

US media reports say as many as 100,000 fans could pack Michigan Stadium for Saturday’s game. Klopp said Liverpool were excited by the challenge.

“It’s not often you get the opportunity to play in the second biggest stadium in the world. Especially when it’s America, I can imagine people like it. It’s an impressive building, it’s cool.

“It’s pre-season, but it’s United against Liverpool, so big game. People in America obviously were waiting for this game or at least 100,000 people were! We’re really looking forward to it.”