NAPLES, Fla. — Jeeno Thitikul birdied every hole and performed as well as women’s golf’s top-ranked player on Friday, shooting a 9-under 63 to move three shots ahead at the CME Group Tour Championship, where the Thai star is on the verge of collecting another $4 million bonus and the LPGA Player of the Year award.
Nelly Korda, who was replaced at No. 1 in the world by Thitikul earlier this year, dropped a lot on her putt count when Thitikul started, shooting a 64 that put her atop the leaderboard.
She ended up five strokes back, at least among the pair winning for the first time this year.
Titiku made it tough for everyone, with four straight birdies around the turn and six birdies in eight holes. She played alongside Sei Young Kim, who did her best to keep up the pace and had six birdies on the back nine at Tiburon Golf Club for a 66.
Defending champion Titikul finished at 130, 14 under.
“Definitely better than yesterday,” Titiku said with a smile. “Still no complaints about no bogeys and nine birdies. So I’ll take it.”
Somi Lee shot a 64 in the LPGA season finale but bogeyed the par 5 and never really started playing again. She birdied two of her final five holes to finish with a 70, four shots behind Nasa Hataoka (67).
But this was Titi Kuhl’s show, and all Kim could do was play with her on another warm day with receptive turf on the greens to get such a good score.
“Nine holes, Gino was a five. [lead],” King said. “I tried to make a lot of birdies, especially on the back nine. So, yeah, I’m on fire after nine. I mean, she’s amazing. She left every hole with a chance for birdie. She’s a great player. I made birdie, she made birdie. “
They birdied all but two of their final 11 holes.
Thitikul leads the LPGA Player of the Year points race. The only player who could catch her was Japanese Women’s British Open champion Miyu Yamashita, who shot 69 and was nine shots behind going into the weekend.
Thitikul and Yamashita are the only players to have multiple wins this year.
Korda apparently has yet to win a title this year after seven in 2024, and she’s off to a slow start at the Tour Championship. But she saw a lot of birdie putts in the 10- to 15-foot range in the second round, making her an early target.
What caused the transformation in her putting?
“Honestly, I went out to the green for five minutes yesterday and I saw some balls actually roll into the hole, which was nice. And then left,” Korda said.
She also played a low round at Annika last Friday to get back into the action and dropped back a bit over the weekend. This time, she was five strokes behind a player, living up to her title as the best player in women’s golf.
Titikul started her birdie run with a pair of 10-foot birdies on the eighth and ninth holes. She then hit her wedge to within inches of the cup on No. 10 and hit her wedge to 5 feet from the right-back pin above the bunker on No. 11, Tiburon’s toughest hole.
The only green she missed was No. 18, but only because her shot rolled off the green, still causing her to miss her birdie putt from about 18 feet.
With 36 holes left, seven players were within five strokes of Titicul, including Brooke Henderson and Minjee Lee. The winner will receive $4 million, the richest prize in women’s golf.
Titiku shot 22 under last year but still won by just one shot. Last year, Amy Yang set a tournament record by winning at 27-under 261. So she realized she needed to keep making birdies.
“As I always say, all the winners here have been in the 20s, which is really low scoring,” Titikul said. “We just have to make more and more of it.”
