Jeeno Thitikul can set all sorts of records Sunday, but the most profound would be breaking Annika Sorenstam\u2019s single-season scoring mark.<\/p>\n
If anything speaks to the kind of year World No. 1 Thitikul has had, it\u2019s that. Heading into the final round of the CME Group Tour Championship in Naples, Fla., with a six-shot lead, the Thailand native can end another incredible season on the LPGA Tour with a second straight $4 million win at Tiburon Golf Club. And if she can shoot three-under-par 69 or better on Sunday to finish at 25 under for the week, Thitikul would surpass Hall of Famer Annika Sorenstam for the lowest single-season scoring average ever.<\/p>\n
Sorenstam\u2019s scoring mark of 68.697 was set in 2002, and Thitikul entered the Tour Championship with a 68.877 scoring average and has shot 67-63-64 to be at 22 under. World No. 2 Nelly Korda (65) and Pajaree Anannarukarn (65) are tied in second at 16 under.<\/p>\n
Thitikul, 22, is looking to wrap up the titles of player of the year and Vare Trophy winner for lowest scoring average. Only Sorenstam and Lydia Ko have won the prize with averages of less than 69.00.<\/p>\n
Thitikul is playing free and easy, and making it sound easy, too. After starting Saturday\u2019s round with a bogey on the first hole, she then birdied four of the next five. She had nine birdies total, including four consecutive on the back nine.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust trying to focus on myself and then trying to make birdies and birdies and birdies, because I know it\u2019s a bunch of players who be able to make a lot of birdies,\u201d said Thitikul, who has 24 birdies over 54 holes this week.<\/p>\n
She captured the tournament title last year after having a 54-hole lead and could win a combined $8 million in this event over the last two years. The Tour Championship boasts a record $11 million purse.<\/p>\n
In the third round, Thitikul hit 11 of 14 fairways and 15 of 18 greens with 25 putts. She\u2019s tied for first in greens in regulation (48 of 54) and recorded her lowest 54-hole score by two shots at 194, which is a tournament record.<\/p>\n
Thitikul will be joined in the final pairing by Korda and fellow Thai Anannaurkara, who was the last player into the field at No. 60 in the rankings. After winning seven events last year, Korda has one final shot for a victory, but she\u2019d need Thitikul to collapse., and that would be uncharacteristic.<\/p>\n
Korda said she\u2019ll focus on her game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like when you start to push a little harder sometimes the mistakes do start to creep in a little bit,\u201d Korda said. \u201cYou just have to be focused on your process and yourself. If it happens, it happens. Just know that you are out there competing hard and you\u2019re trying to win, but you also have to not get too ahead of yourself and play the game.\u2019<\/p>\n
Thitikul is human, of course, with a seeming sure victory at the Kroger Queen City Championship this year, she four-putted to lose the event. She also squandered an opportunity to win the Evian Championship as well, and the one glaring hole on her resume is that she has yet to win a major.<\/p>\n
Thitikul is happy about the performance of her friend, Anannaurkarn, someone she\u2019s known since junior golf. They\u2019ll surely feel comfortable playing together and that might make a pressure-packed final pairing seem a little less stressful.<\/p>\n
Of the opportunities in front of her, Thitikul said, \u201cI think every day we face different situations and I think this is another situation that it can help me grow in my golf career. So I\u2019m happy to be able to face it because it means a good sign.\u201d<\/p>\n
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jeeno Thitikul can set all sorts of records Sunday, but the most profound would be breaking Annika Sorenstam\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[4225,64,63,755,138747,44,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-302815","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-article","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-golf","12":"tag-golf-digest","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}