At the Tour Championship, the leaderboard tells the story of the LPGA season

NAPLES, Fla. – Nelly Korda’s birdie attempt just slipped off the 18th hole, leaving her one tap for par and a third-round seven-under 65 that included seven birdies and zero handicaps.

It was another dazzling performance from the world No.2 – one that could have been even better if a few shots had gone the right way.

“There’s definitely some I left out there, but that’s golf,” Korda said after her round Tiburon Golf Club. “They’re all very close, the burnished edges, so that means I’m hitting it where I want it.”

This has been Korda’s season, such a season has seen him go winless with one round to play. She’s been playing good golf, but it’s just been a tick here and a tick there, preventing her from lifting a trophy a year after lifting seven. Even when Korda has been at her best this year, she’s either been beaten (as by A Lim Kim at the Champions Tour) or her shot has let her down, as in her runner-up finish at the US Women’s Open.

Korda was splashed in the first round in Naples but responded by pushing the course on Friday to enter the race. She backed up her second-round 64 with a 65 on Saturday, only to see world No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul best her by one shot and extend her lead to six heading into the final round, leaving Korda with a huge mountain to climb if she plans to end the season with a win.

But while Korda doesn’t want to go winless in 2025, she doesn’t plan to approach Sunday’s final round any differently to ensure she ends up with a trophy. She will put the pedal down while staying in her process.

“I feel like when you start pushing a little bit harder, sometimes the mistakes start creeping in a little bit,” Korda said of her mindset trying to take down Thitikul. “You just have to focus on your process and yourself. If it happens, it happens. You know, just know that you’re out there competing hard and trying to win, but you also have to not get too ahead of yourself and play the game.”

While Korda’s winless drought has been the headline of the 2025 LPGA season, Thitikul it was history.

The 22-year-old has won twice and is a few Sunday hiccups away from two more victories. it overtook Korda as world number 1and her stats say she’s been just as dominant as Korda was a year ago, with just five fewer wins to show for it. Thitikul leads the LPGA in scoring average (68.88), strokes gained: Total (2.96), birdie percentage or better (27.69%), bogeys avoided (10.94%), Par 3 scoring average (2.89) and Par 4 scoring average (3.92).

Thitikul won the CME Group Tour Championship last year and will enter Sunday at 22 under, six shots clear of Korda and Pajaree Anannarukarn. She is poised to win the player of the year award and the Vare trophy on Sunday when all is said and done.

But Thitikul, who went four-under on Kroger’s final hole to lose to Charley Hull, knows that on this table course, in these conditions, this tournament is far from over.

“Like I always say, all the winners here, the score is like 20-plus something, which is a really low score,” Thitikul said Friday. “We just have to do more and more and more.”

As she has done all year, she delivered more on Saturday.

After a sloppy bogey on the par-5 first, Thitikul birdied 2, 4, 5 and 6 before reeling off four straight birdies on the back nine to extend her lead heading into Sunday.

Thitikul’s humility and perspective shone through in a year in which he statistically dominated the competition. After passing Korda as world number 1, Thitikul laughed and said that she still “I don’t think she’s that good.”

But Jeeno Thitikul is that well, and she can put the perfect ball into the 2025 season on Sunday by defending her title in Naples.

It’s only fitting that the only one likely to have a chance of finding it is Korda, who is hoping to finally finish on the right side of golf’s fine line to end what has been a disappointing 2025.

“The competition is getting better and better here every year,” Korda said Friday. “It just makes you want to get better because there’s nothing better than being in the race going down in ninth position on Sunday.”