NAPLES, Florida: Jeeno Thitikul capped off her best year with the biggest payoff in women’s golf, along with her place in the LPGA record book with the lowest scoring average in the tour’s 75-year history.
As easy as she made it look Sunday with a four-shot victory in the CME Group Tour Championship, she has memories of the road not always being so smooth.
There was that four-putt finish to lose the Kroger Queen City Championship two months ago.
“I have the ice pack put in my eyes because I cried so bad,” she said.
Then came a wrist injury last week from the firm turf at home in Dallas that left her uncertain if she could get through four rounds at Tiburon Golf Club in the season finale, much less win. She curtailed practice sessions to help.
“I think earlier in the week I just saying be able to finish four rounds of golf here just more than I could ask for already,” she said. “But standing here with the trophy on Sunday, it’s just like more than I really, really could ask for sure.”
Inside the ropes, she looked every bit as dominant as the No. 1 player in women’s golf.
Staked to a six-shot lead over Nelly Korda going into the final day at Tiburon Golf Club, Thitikul held off an early challenge from Pajaree Anannarukarn with a pair of birdies early on the back nine and sailed home with a 4-under 68 and a second straight title in the CME Group Tour Championship.
That meant another check for $4 million, the largest in women’s golf, pushing her season earnings to $7,578,300. That final birdie from 10 feet allowed her to break Annika Sorenstam’s scoring record by the slimmest of margins — 68.681 for Thitikul, 68.697 for Sorenstam in 2002.
“I mean, like never, ever dreaming having that record at all,” she said. “And then one time that I can be the lowest score average in my whole career should be really amazing.”
What she didn’t know was how close it got at one point Sunday.
Anannarukarn, playing in the group ahead of her fellow Thai, ran off five birdies in seven holes at the start to close the gap to two shots. It remained a two-shot lead going to the back nine.
But then Thitikul birdied the 10th and the 13th, and Anannarukarn dropped a shot at the par-3 12th. The lead was back to five shots and Thitikul was home free. She just didn’t look at a leaderboard until she got to the par-5 17th, unaware that her Thai friend was on her heels.
Thitikul raised both arms when the final birdie dropped, and before long she was getting soaked with bubbly on the 18th green. Thitikul, who finished at 26-under 262, joined Jin Young Ko as the only back-to-back winners of the CME Group Tour Championship.
The victory also assured her winning LPGA player of the year, an outcome that was already decided because Women’s British Open champion Miyu Yamashita would have had to win.
Korda, replaced by Thitikul at No. 1 in women’s golf, became the first player since Tiger Woods in 2010 to go from seven wins in one season to none the following year.
She faced long odds at six shots behind to start the day and fell further back with one bogey and no birdies on the front nine. She holed out for eagle on No. 11 and shot 31 on the back a 68 to finish third. Korda still has the mixed-team Grant Thornton Invitational and the PNC Championship with her father next month.
Asked to describe the year, Korda said, “A grind.”
“I feel like there was a lot of ups and downs and it made me grow a lot mentally, and I would say I’m just also very grateful for it because success is never linear,” she said.
