At the Tour Championship, the leaderboard tells the story of the LPGA season
Naples, FLANE
It was another brilliant display from world Noah 2 – One that could have been much better if a few putts cut the course.
“There’s definitely a few I left out there, but that’s golf,” Korda said after his round at Tiburon Golf Club. “They’re all very close, sharp edges, so that means I’m hitting it where I want to.”
That was Korda’s season, one that saw him go winless with one round to play. He played good golf but he just took off here and tickled him there, keeping him from lifting the medal for another year after lifting the seventh. Even when Korda was in the lead this year, it has been arranged (like Lim Kim in his competition in the water tournament) or his putter stopped, as he did in his American women’s finish.
Korda was knocked out in the first round in Naples but responded by training on Friday to enter contention. He was behind this second-round 64 Up on Saturday 65, only to see the world No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul picked him for the final round, leaving Korda with a big mountain to climb if he plans to finish the season.
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But while Korda doesn’t want to go Oneling in 2025, he doesn’t plan to talk about Sunday’s final lap or anything to ensure he finishes with a medal. He will put the pedal down while staying in his routine.
“I feel like when you start pushing hard, sometimes the mistakes start to fall a little bit,” Korda said of his mind trying to get off Thitikul. “You have to focus on your process and yourself. If it happens, it happens. You know, you just know that you’re there and you’re working hard and you’re trying to be the best and play the game before you.”
While Korda’s drought was the focus of the 2025 LPGA season, Thitikul was the story.
The 22-year-old has won twice and Sunday is a few hiccups away from more victories. He found Korda as a country No Thitikul leads the LPGA in scoring (68.88), strokes gained: Total (2.96), birdie or better percentage (10.94%), PAR 3 Scoring Average average (3.92).
Thitikul won the CME Group Tour last year and will enter Sunday 22 under, six shots clear of Korda and Pajaree Anannarukarn. He is set to win the player of the year award and the vare trophy on Sunday when all is said and done.
But Thitikul, placed four in the last hole of Kroger lost to Charley Hull, knows that in this course, in these conditions, the competition is far away.
“Like I always say, all the winners here, the scores are like something like 20-plus, which is a really low score,” Thitikul said on Friday. “We just need to do more and more.”
As he has all year, he brought a lot on Saturday.
After a bogey at the Par-5 First, Thitikul rattled off birdies on 2, 4, 5 and 6 before birdying the back nine to extend his lead on Sunday.
Thitikul’s humility and vision shone through during the year when he statistically dominated the competition. After finding Korda as World No. 1, Thitikul laughed and said he still “doesn’t think he’s that good.”
But Jeeno Thitikul that Good, and he can set the perfect topper for the 2025 season on Sunday by defending his title in Naples.
It’s fitting that the only chance to follow him down is Korda, who is hoping for the end of a good golf streak to end the 2025 slump.
“The competition gets better and better here every year,” Korda said Friday. “It just makes you want to improve again because there’s nothing better than a fight that goes down on a Sunday after nine.”
