Jeeno Thitikul upsets Angel Yin to win the CME Group Tour Championship

Yin Angel had a check at the end of the LPGA season CME Group Tour Championship as of Friday afternoon, but wrapping up a win for the biggest prize in women’s golf isn’t supposed to be easy.

Especially when a former world number 1 as Jeeno Thitikul I’m following you down.

Yin, one of the top players on the LPGA Tour all season and had been even better this week in Naples, looked like he had locked up the massive $4 million payout when he took a two-shot lead on the 17th tee and dropped the third. shot the par-5 to within five feet.

But in an instant, the momentum that had seemingly been in Yin’s favor all weekend swung back toward Thitikul. The 21-year-old hit it on the 17th in two and drained the eagle putt from about 15 yards before Yin pushed her birdie effort.

Then, on the 18th, Thitikul teed off for an approach shot, landing her ball short of the hole and stretching it to about five feet, which she converted for birdie and a one-stroke victory at 22 under. . She went on the last two holes in the Tiburon Golf Club for the second day in a row.

“Actually, I don’t know what happens to me on 17 and 18. I mean, if I make a birdie on 17, that gives me a good chance,” Thitikul said afterward. “But to have an eagle is more than I can ask for. And then to hit a really good second shot on 18 and birdie the hole, it’s like, you know, all the hard work that I’ve been doing, it’s like it’s paying off.”

It is Thitikul’s second win of the season, but her first individual win on the LPGA Tour since her first campaign in 2022. Her other win this season came in June at the Dow Championship, as she teamed with Ruoning Yin.

That’s also not to say Thitkul, who now has four LPGA titles, was struggling either when she won the Vare Trophy, the LPGA’s signature title, in 2023 before dealing with a wrist injury earlier this season. .

Thitkul was four back of Yin heading into the weekend, but closed the gap on Saturday with an under-par finish over her final six holes. She even opened up a two-shot lead early Sunday before Yin caught her again at 16 with a two-shot swing at the 4th hole.

Yin looked to be pulling away as the back nine got under way, making long birdie putts at 10, 12 and 16, while adding another birdie at 14. But the loss at 17 proved costly for the 26-year-old. It’s her second runner-up finish this season after a breakout season in 2023, where she won her first LPGA title and finished runner-up at the Chevron Championship.

Thitikul takes home the $4 million first-place prize, the biggest prize in women’s golf, and also earned $1 million for winning the season’s Aon Risk Reward Challenge, which she won earlier in the week. The $5 million from this week alone is nearly as much as Thitkul’s career earnings of $5.8 million entering the week and more than the $4.2 million Nelly Korda, who has won seven times including one major, earned all season.

I just thought it was another opportunity that is passing in my life once in my career, Thitikul said. “Definitely I like that it’s not life or death so I just kept 100% if I win it will be great but if not it will just be a tournament that I give 100% that I have.”

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