HUSTON – Jeeno Thitikul hears the noise. of The world number 1 knows the questions are comingand only one thing can eradicate them. Unfortunately, to this point, it’s the one question Thitikul hasn’t been able to answer since rising to the top of the women’s golf world.
Thitikul has gained a lot in her new career. She has 21 professional victories, including eight on the LPGA and five on the Ladies European Tour. She has won back-to-back CME Group Tour championships, two Vare Trophies and was named LPGA Player of the Year in 2025, when she was one of two players to win multiple titles.
But for all her talent and achievements, Thitikul has not climbed the biggest mountain. Great glory has eluded her. She has nine top 10s in 27 major starts as a pro. She held a 36-hole lead at the 2024 Chevron Championship but faded on the weekend as Nelly Korda went on to win. She watched Minjee Lee blows from it on the weekend at the 2025 KPMG Women’s PGA, and beyond saw Grace Kim on her trail and beat him dramatically at Evian.
The main dreams of Thitikul have been in her hand, but she has seen them slip through her fingers several times, as if she were trying to catch smoke.
Last year, at the Chevron and KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, Thitikul put aside the idea of ​​feeling the pressure win a major championship – take the step befitting her world-class talent.
“Every major, I just want to make the cut, to be honest,” Thitikul said, laughing, at the Frisco PGA last year. “It would be great to win it, and I can definitely say it would be like everyone dreams of winning a major. For me, what I have now under my belt, I’m very happy with everything I’ve achieved. If I can achieve it, it would be great, but if not, I have no regrets.”
At last year’s Chevron, Thitikul, with the indomitability of youth radiating from her, said she would be perfectly fine if she never won a major. That’s the perspective that stems from a modest upbringing in Ratchaburi, Thailand, a small town not far from Bangkok that didn’t have a golf course. Thitikul has always had a great sense of perspective. She learned the game from her grandfather and pursued it professionally to give her family a better life. Given her career earnings, she already has. Whatever comes after that is extra. That’s the gift of being young, having only light ahead of you, and having made it further than you ever thought possible.
“I would look at it as a challenging thing,” Thitikul said last year of trying to win a major. “Exactly, a challenge to do. I’m not saying it’s stressful because I know I’m still young and a lot of opportunities will come.
“I just tell myself if I’m not earning a degree (until) I retire, if I’m going to regret it or be sad about it, and I’m going to say I’m not. No, it’s just more things to do, more than life, more than golf.”
Time and scars have a way of changing things.
No one is immune to the weight of great pressure and, as time passes and the goal remains elusive, things can change.
After a summer in which she was beaten by Lee in Frisco and failed to put away Kim in Evian, Thitikul arrives at this year’s Chevron Championship realizing the stakes rise the longer her immense drones last. She’s still getting close, but realizes the weight will increase if she continues to be short. That her achievements are indisputable, but the degrees are different, no matter what you tell yourself.
“Every time I lost in a major, of course, people remember every week,” Thitikul said, laughing, Tuesday at Memorial Park in Houston. “Obviously, I think it’s just the challenge of my career. I know what I have (under my belt) now at this (age). I think I achieve a lot, but obviously (the majors are) what I feel like the first time is always the hardest.
“And then if I can prove to myself that I can do it, I think it’s just — that’s what golf is.”
Thitikul has already shown that she can overcome obstacles and bounce back from heartbreak—that she can endure pain and use it as fuel to climb.
Last season, after she carded a four-under 72 to lose the Kroger Championship, Thitikul, the world No. 1, went home to Dallas and cried her eyes out. She took a photo of her swollen face to remind her of the ups and downs of the life she chose. There will be highs, but they don’t come without lows. A few weeks later, Thitikul let go of that loss by writing a historic return to Shanghai. After that win, she showed another side of herself. She showed that the tears of a talent who conquered the world with a fire are wonderful – one who wants to win and make the most of a rare gift.
“I just kept telling myself whatever (happens) in dramatic events, not only in Cincinnati but this year, I just told myself I have to win it myself,” Thitikul said in Shanghai. “The winner is only one player and then I have to win it myself, and then when my time comes, I will want to be in that moment again and do it again myself. I have nothing to fear anymore.”
Jeeno Thitikul hopes to find himself in that moment again this week. She’ll tell you that putting yourself in contention, as she has, means it’s only a matter of time before things break your way—before the golf gods rule in your favor and you prove to yourself that you’re made for the moments you’ve always dreamed you were.
;)
