Jeeno Thitikul’s new mindset earned her Mizuho. Will it help him answer the main question?

Two weeks ago, Jeeno Thitikul arrived at the Chevron Championship and admitted to hearing all the hype about her inability to win a major. The then no. 1 ranked player in the world called it the “challenge” of her career to finally cross the line into the biggest events.

Two days later, Jeeno Thitikul missed the cut at Memorial Park as Nelly Korda went on to win her third major and regain first place in the Rolex rankings. Thitikul took a week off after her early exit in Houston and returned to action this week to defend her title in Mizuho Americas Open. Thitikul has has always approached her career with great perspectivethat of someone who learned the game on a driving range in Ratchaburi, Thailand, a small town not far from Bangkok that it does not have its own course. Someone who has already achieved more than he thought possible. Thitikul wants to win a major, but is also happy with everything she has already achieved in the game. There is pressure to win a major because it is a dream of hers, but not because she needs validation from others.

“I don’t think I have to prove anything to like other players, people or myself, because like what I have, I’ve already proven it for a long, long time,” Thitikul said Friday at Mountain Ridge Country Club. “
There is only a certain time that golf seems easy to you. Then I have a certain time (where) golf is so hard for me, which is Chevron, it’s one of those weeks where I feel like, “What did I do wrong?” … I’m like, ‘What did golf do to me now?’ And then coming into this week, I didn’t expect anything, to be honest. ”

Thitikul won earlier this season in Thailand but has struggled with her game since the LPGA returned to America in March. After bowing early to Chevron, Thitikul spoke to her coach about issues with her swing, mainly her iron game, and they decided to attack her Mizuho title defense with a new mindset.

Try less.

“When you put the work (in) and you don’t see the results, sometimes you’re really disappointed,” Thitikul said earlier this week at Mizuho. “He said, ‘Maybe, don’t try.’ Then, if you don’t try, you probably don’t expect anything.”

That change in mindset set Thitikul free this week in West Caldwell, New Jersey. The 23-year-old opened with rounds of 67 and 69 to take a three-shot lead into the weekend. Celine Boutier closed the gap to two after the third round, but Thitikul left the tournament on Sunday. She bogeyed the second and third holes, while Boutier three-putted out of the race. As Boutier faded, Ruoning Yin made five birdies on the front nine to get within one of Thitikul, but bogeys at 11 and 16 halted her championship run and Thitikul marked her title defense by sinking a 20-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to finish at 13 under and win by four.

In the end, trying less, Jeeno Thitikul took him where he wanted to go.

“It helped me a lot,” Thitikul said of her new mindset after the win. “I just stayed in my bubble, stayed in what I can do. (If) the golf isn’t going to be good, then the golf isn’t going to be good. My life isn’t changing. I guess what I have to think about is just what I can control.”

As is always the case with Thitikul, the sheen of the title was quickly consumed by questions about when her big breakthrough will come. With the US Women’s Open at Riviera a month away, Thitikul’s mind and game seem to be shaping up just in time.

This is something that Jeeno Thitikul wants. But that’s not something the world No. 2 will emphasize. If her big win comes, she comes. If it doesn’t, Jeeno Thitikul will be fine.

“Yeah, that’s always been a dream,” Thitikul said of winning a major. “I would say dream, not goal, to be able to win a major. But I don’t want to put anything on my shoulders right now. I just took it all out. I just play golf.

“Whether I win a major or not, I think I have enough.”