FROM FIGHTING COLDS TO HOTTEST GOLFER

In The Spotlight

- Andy Ng Correspondent

World No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul, competing at the 2025 LPGA Tour Championship, picked up golf when she was six to build her stamina and prevent illness.

(PHOTO: AFP)

As the sun dipped low over the Tiburon Golf Club on Nov 23, casting long shadows across the manicured fairways, Jeeno Thitikul shone as she etched her name into golfing immortality.

The 22-year-old Thai sensation won back-to-back LPGA Tour Championship titles with a 26-under 262 total to seal a four-shot victory, claiming the US$4 million (S$5.2 million) winner’s cheque and capping off another dominant season.

It was a fitting crescendo to 2025, during which Jeeno racked up over US$7.6 million in earnings and three wins.

She was also named Player of the Year and set a new LPGA Tour single-season scoring average record (68.681), besting Annika Sorenstam’s 2002 average of 68.696.

But amid the roar of victory, she remains the same unassuming young woman from Ratchaburi, Thailand a place where golf was once as foreign as the sprawling courses she now conquers.

"Standing here with the trophy on Sunday... it’s more than I really, really could ask for, for sure,” she said on the LPGA Tour website.