NAPLES, Fla. — Jeeno Thitikul capped her best year professionally with the biggest payoff in women’s golf, along with her place in the record book by clinching the lowest scoring average for any season in the LPGA Tour’s 75-year history.
As easy as the 22-year-old Thailand native 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 just two months ago, for example.
“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.
“Standing here with the trophy on Sunday,” Thitikul said, “it’s just, like, more than I really, really could ask for, for sure.”
Inside the ropes on Tiburon’s Gold Course, she looked every bit the No. 1 player in the Women’s World Golf Rankings, a position she took over from American star Nelly Korda in early August.
Staked to a six-shot lead over Korda going into the final round, Thitikul held off an early challenge from fellow Thai player Pajaree Anannarukarn with a pair of birdies early on the back nine, then sailed home for a 4-under-par 68 and a second straight victory in the season finale.
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 World Golf Hall of Famer Annika Sorenstam’s season record by the slimmest of margins: 68.681 for Thitikul this year, 68.697 for Sorenstam on the LPGA Tour’s 2002 schedule.
“I mean, like never, ever dreaming of having that record at all,” Thitikul said.
What she didn’t know was how close it got at one point Sunday.
Anannarukarn, playing in the group ahead, ran off five birdies in seven holes at the start of the round to close the gap to two shots. It remained there going to the back nine, but then Thitikul birdied the 10th and the 13th holes, and Anannarukarn dropped a shot at the par-3 12th.
The lead was back to five, and Thitikul was home free. She just didn’t look at a leaderboard until she got to the par-5 17th, unaware that her 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 the 72-hole tournament at 26-under 262, joined Jin Young Ko as the only back-to-back winners of the 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, who entered the final round 16 shots out of the lead, would have had to win.
Anannarukarn’s 66 was good for a runner-up finish on the leaderboard. Korda, a seven-time winner in 2024, had to settle for third Sunday as she finished the season without a victory.
The 27-year-old Floridian faced long odds at six shots behind entering the final round and fell further back with one bogey and no birdies on the front nine. She holed out for an eagle on No. 11 and shot 31 on the back for a closing 68. Korda still has the mixed-team Grant Thornton Invitational and the PNC Championship with her father next month.
Asked to describe the year, Korda called it “a grind.”
“I feel like there was a lot of ups and downs, and it made me grow a lot mentally,” she said, “and I would say I’m just also very grateful for it, because success is never linear.”
PGA Tour wraps up fall schedule
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. — Sami Valimaki became the first Finland native to win a PGA Tour tournament when he closed with a 4-under 66 for a one-shot victory in the RSM Classic, the final event of the year, where hopes rose and fell over the final hour on the Seaside Course at Sea Island Golf club.
Valimaki, who had a pair of runner-up finishes over the past two seasons, used his putter from below the green on the 16th and then holed an 18-foot putt to finish with a 72-hole score of 23-under 259 in an event that also uses the par-72 Plantation Course. The 27-year-old Valimaki — who shot 67-65-65 over the final three rounds on the Seaside after opening Thursday with a 66 on the Plantation — was steady over the closing holes even as the wind abruptly changed direction with a little more force late in the day.
Far more dramatic was everything going on in front of him.
The top 100 in the FedEx Cup standings — down from 125 players in previous years — have full PGA Tour cards for a 2026 season when the fields will be smaller.
Ricky Castillo got through the front nine in 28 strokes and closed with a 62, and when he finished, it looked like that would be enough for him to move from No. 135 inside the top 100. But then Max McGreevy holed a 30-foot birdie putt on the final hole for a 63, moving him into second place alone.
That bumped Castillo down to No. 102 by fewer than 10 points.
Right after McGreevy holed his putt, Lee Hodges had a 10-foot birdie attempt that narrowly missed and cost him a chance to move into the top 100. The par for a 66 left him at No. 101 in the FedEx Cup standings by about two points.
On the tournament’s final leaderboard, Hodges finished at 19 under and shared fifth place with Colombia’s Nicolas Echavarria (65) and Si Woo Kim (66).
When the RSM Classic ended, the players at Nos. 95 to 100 going into the final event were unchanged.
And there was Valimaki, a two-time winner on the Europe-based DP World Tour who was a runner-up at the PGA Tour’s World Wide Technology Championship two weeks ago in Mexico. Now he has a two-year exemption on the PGA Tour and is assured of playing the first two $20 million signature events of 2026 by finishing at No. 51 in the FedEx Cup standings.
“It has been a long road, of course,” Valimaki said. “I feel like it’s a really tough year even when I kind of played decent golf, and then to keep pushing and find some good grooves in the last few tournaments, it feels amazing.”
McGreevy, who already had his card locked up, moved up to No. 60 to also qualify for a pair of signature events to start next year. His finish bumped three-time major champion Jordan Spieth, who did not play the post-Tour Championship fall schedule, from the 60th spot, meaning Spieth will need sponsor exemptions for the Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Genesis Invitational, both in February.
McGreevy played with freedom knowing he didn’t have to worry about playing for his card.
“I never felt that nervous,” he said. “I felt like I was playing to win. Luckily, my best golf came out at the end of the year.”
Chattanooga native Keith Mitchell (65) tied for 18th in the RSM Classic at 17 under, while fellow Baylor School graduate Harris English (68) tied for 47th at 12 under.