Revisiting Jeeno Thitikul’s under-the-radar, record-setting year

The past 12 months had a little of everything — a career Grand Slam, Ryder Cup chaos and so much more. With 2026 on the horizon, our writers look back at the most memorable moments from 2025 and explain why they mattered.

No. 15 — The zero-torque putter movement
No. 14 — ‘Happy Gilmore 2’ takes golf world by storm
No. 13 — Joaquin Niemann’s big 2025 (and crucial 2026)
No. 12 — J.J. Spaun’s memorable major title
No. 11 — The Internet Invitational

Stories of 2025 No. 10: Jeeno Thitikul’s record year

Just how deep is the talent on the LPGA Tour? When Sei Young Kim sealed her wire-to-wire, four-shot victory at October’s BMW Ladies Championship in Korea for the 13th LPGA win of her career, she not only snapped a nearly five-year win drought, she also helped dismantle an even lengthier record: Kim’s win made her the 27th different winner on the LPGA Tour in 2025 in 28 tournaments, establishing a new single-season benchmark for the LPGA Tour.

The spell was temporarily broken two weeks later when reigning AIG Women’s Open champion Miyu Yamashita claimed her second victory of the season at Malaysia’s Maybank Championship. But then, two more different winners claimed titles in consecutive weeks: Nasa Hataoka at the TOTO Japan Classic and Linn Grant at The ANNIKA.

The previous LPGA record for different winners set the bar at 26 in 1995. That number was tied in 2018 and 2022, and finally shattered by Grant’s victory in November, which brought the year’s total to 29 different winners with only one tournament remaining.

Heading into the LPGA season’s finale, the CME Group Tour Championship, only two players had distinguished themselves with more than one win: Yamashita, and World No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul, who won May’s Mizuho Americas Open as well as October’s Buick LPGA Shanghai.

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The parity that was on display in 2025 is impressive, especially when you consider that it was only last year that Nelly Korda notched a seven-win season — and she was one of five players who won multiple times in 2024, with Hannah Green and Lydia Ko also claiming three victories each. Korda, who fell to World No. 2 behind Thitikul in August, did not post a victory in 2025 but came incredibly close several times, with seven top-5 finishes, including two runner-ups.

At the CME, though, Thitikul asserted herself as the latest queen of the LPGA tour, cruising to a four-stroke victory to win the $4 million prize for the second year in a row.

In a record-setting season, Thitikul’s three wins weren’t the only thing that set her apart from her peers. She was named the Rolex Player of the Year and won the Vare Trophy for the second time. Thitikul’s consistency also earned her some impressive entries in the history books, including a new record scoring average of 68.68 (which beat Annika’s Sorenstam’s 2002 record by 0.02) and a new single-season earnings record, with $7,578,330. Thitikul finished the season with 14 top-10 finishes in 20 starts.

One of Thitikul’s superpowers appears to be her understanding that victorious stretches can be fleeting. At September’s Kroger Queen City Championship, she four-putted the 18th hole to finish second to Charley Hull. She revisited the aftermath of that devastating loss — and the perspective it’s given her — in the wake of her triumph at the CME.

“I remember the day that I came to Dallas after the Kroger,” she said. “I have the ice pack put in my eyes because I cried so bad. That’s I remember. And then I willingly took a picture holding like this. It’s weird. But I just want to reminding myself that the day that you reach to there or the day that you like, you know, the happiness in your life, this day will come definitely. Like the sadness days will come.

“So just, you know, kind of like whatever you had in your career doesn’t define who you are and doesn’t define like who I am as a Jeeno, too.”

At just 22 years old, Thitikul is wise beyond her years. What will 2026 bring? We can’t wait to tune in and find out.