Welcome back to the Monday Finish, where we’re thankful for golf. And for you. Without both, we very literally wouldn’t be here. To the golf news!
Other than Scottie Scheffler, every golf winner is unexpected, which helps us a bit in choosing five this week. But as we enter golf’s offseason (this is a running bit, we enter golf’s offseason basically every week, there is no offseason) it’s worth calling out a few.
5 unexpected winners this week
1. Jeeno Thitikul (and her new commissioner)
For most of the LPGA season, one storyline ruled: there were no repeat winners. Through 25 weeks, 26 different players had won an event (24 individual winners plus the two-player Dow Championship) which was a statistical oddity as well as a clear expression of the circuit’s depth and talent. But it was also something of a concern. Any and every sports league needs star power, needs recognizable faces in the mix, needs recurring characters. Sure, 2024 was the year of Nelly Korda. Would 2025 be the year of … everybody else?
Nah.
Jeeno Thitikul was hardly a surprise; she won the final event of 2024 (the CME Group Tour Championship) and the Mizuho Americas Open in April. She took over the crown of World No. 1, too. But because she stacked heartbreaking runner-up finishes instead of wins (four second-place finishes in 2025, including three in five starts from July-September) it felt like her year would be defined by near-misses. But then she flipped the script, winning the Buick LPGA Shanghai in October and then repeating at this weekend’s big-money CME, where she ran and hid from the field and wound up winning by four.
It was an appropriately dominant result for what was ultimately a dominant season.
The numbers and awards tell an important story: Lowest scoring average ever. Most money ever. Rolex Player of the Year. Vare Trophy winner. And so on. But that’s just part of what I hope becomes an even bigger story: a girl from small-town Thailand who learned golf on a local driving range is now World No. 1, a main face of the LPGA, a dominant player and a delightful, thoughtful interview.
“Lots of things happen in just one year, for sure,” she said after her win on Sunday. “You see me hold the trophy today, but you see me crying for sure for the four-putt I had earlier [this season]. Nothing you can predict with golf. Anything can happen. You can’t control anybody else. But what lasts long is your hard work, your discipline, and like, your passion about golf.”
Her win capped off a massively successful few weeks for her league’s new frontman, commissioner Craig Kessler. While his tour waded into controversial waters — plenty of ink was spilled about Kai Trump as well as the LPGA’s new Saudi partnership — he scored a far more substantive win in bolstering the LPGA’s coverage throughout the years to come. The season-ending CME felt big because of that news, because of Jeeno’s win, even because of little stuff like the early-week awards ceremony, speeches, red carpet. The LPGA’s season of anonymity finished with optimism and with star power. Nelly and Jeeno and whoever’s next. Let’s hope 2026 picks up where 2025 left off.
2. Sami Valimaki (and the nation of Finland)
He was already a two-time DP World Tour winner and a two-time PGA Tour runner-up. Now Sami Valimaki is a winner with a two-year exemption on the PGA Tour — and the first winner in Finland’s history.
If you were to make up a quick story for a Finnish golf pro’s background, you might get pretty close to Valimaki, who was a hockey forward with a nice shot and dreams of an NHL future.
“That was kind of my whole idea, but they didn’t pick me for the national team,” he recounted on Sunday, post-win. “So they picked me on the golf national team. I said, okay, let’s give it a go for this one, and this road has been working out well.”
You can say that again.
(More on who snagged PGA Tour cards — and who didn’t — here.)
3. Dan Brown (we think)
In this case we’re not talking about the Da Vinci Code author but instead the English golfer who finished at No. 11 in the DP World Tour’s list of pros to receive PGA Tour promotion. That would seem like an unfortunate spot for Dan Brown — unless one of the top 10 dropped out of contention before the end of 2025. That’s now a possibility, according to a report from Sports Business Journal that Laurie Canter is set to return to LIV Golf despite qualifying for the PGA Tour.
There are layers to this. Canter was set to be the first ex-LIV pro to earn his PGA Tour card; that’s obviously now up in the air. He’s currently some version of “Schrodinger’s Golfer,” existing in ultimate limbo between DP World Tour status, PGA Tour status and LIV Golf status. Until we hear more from him or his new team, we won’t know for sure. But Brown will hope he makes things official in the next month…
4. Anthony Kim (and a few former coworkers)
Certain Asian Tour events feel like expanded LIV events, none more so than this week’s PIF Saudi International, which was sponsored by LIV’s financial backers, held in LIV’s home country and included a top 10 comprised entirely of 2025 LIV Golfers.
The winner was notable, Jose Luis Ballester, a young Spaniard and 2024 U.S. Amateur champ who signed with LIV earlier this year. He leapt from outside the top 1000 in the Official World Golf Ranking to No. 264; he and runner-up Caleb Surratt (who climbed to No. 244) reminded us they each have the game to compete with the best on their circuit and beyond.
But the guy in T5 was just as intriguing: Anthony Kim. The mysterious former PGA Tour star just finished up his second year on LIV and faces an uncertain future after being relegated from the league. The problem wasn’t just getting bumped from LIV — the problem was not showing that he could be competitive. In 32 starts since his comeback, mostly in LIV’s 54-player fields (plus) some on the Asian Tour, Kim had 28 finishes outside the top 40 and a best result of T25.
On Sunday, though, he wrapped up by far his most complete week of golf, shooting 67-64-69-70 to finish T5 alongside the likes of Tyrrell Hatton, providing concrete evidence that what he’s been working on has been paying off. Whatever you think of Kim, of his comeback, of his LIV decision or his online wars of words, it’s hard not to marvel at his on-course comeback. This was his first top 20 anywhere since 2011. Since 2011! That’s remarkable.
5. Australian Golf (and golf at funny times)
Do you live in the U.S.? What time do you like your golf? Do you like it at 9 a.m. ET on Black Friday, Skins-Game style, before a heaping helping of Thanksgiving leftovers? You’re in luck. But that’s for everybody. The real diehards will have already been immersed in the BMW Australian PGA Championship, which will kick off on Thursday, Nov. 27 at Royal Queensland Golf Club.
No, this isn’t the following week’s Australian Open, which will take place at Royal Melbourne and feature globe-trotting headliner Rory McIlroy. But you’ll have Aussie stars like Min Woo Lee, Adam Scott and Cameron Smith, DP World Tour stars like Marco Penge and Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, LIV stars like Joaquin Niemann and David Puig getting their DP World Tour starts in before their fines get murky — and comeback stories like that of Andrew “Beef” Johnston and Eddie Pepperell.
Aussie golf summer is here. Golf has no offseason.
NEWS FROM SEATTLE
Monday Finish HQ.
There’s no hope of pre-work golf; the sun doesn’t rise until 7:30 a.m., plus it’s cold.
There’s no hope of post-work golf; the sun sets at 4:20 p.m., plus it’s cold.
It’s time to lean into lunch golf. See you there.
And we’ll see you next week.
Dylan Dethier welcomes your comments at dylan_dethier@golf.com.
