![\"Porter\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1785462014_972_.jpeg\")
Cassie Porter is the leading Australian at one under. (AP PHOTO)<\/p>\nJeeno Thitikul has taken the first step towards the missing prize of her career after starting the Women\u2019s British Open with a sublime seven-under-par 64 at Royal Lytham & St Annes.<\/p>\n
As most of the nine-strong Australian contingent made a disappointing start, Thitikul claimed a two-shot lead over Haeran Ryu and Shiho Kuwaki at golf\u2019s final major of the year.<\/p>\n
One of only two players to have been No.1 in the women\u2019s world rankings without ever having won a major, Thitikul made three straight birdies early in her afternoon round and kept bogeys off her card the rest of the way.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old Thai has been overlooked during the LPGA major season dominated by Ryu and Nelly Korda, who have split the four majors. Korda, who replaced Thitikul at No.1 in April, won the first two and Ryu the next two.<\/p>\n
Ryu put herself in good position to make it three in a row, a feat not achieved since Inbee Park in 2013, with two birdies on her last three holes for a 66. The South Korean won the Women\u2019s PGA at Hazeltine and closed with 60 to win the Evian Championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was so amazed, and I asked my caddie why I\u2019m playing well this week,\u201d Ryu said. \u201cIt\u2019s because I\u2019m more calm and enjoying the golf more. That\u2019s why these days my golf is going pretty well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Korda has work to do. The dominant player through the first week of June, the American star missed the cut at Evian Championship and she couldn\u2019t atone for four bogeys in a pedestrian round of 73.<\/p>\n
Cassie Porter is the leading Australian at one under. (AP PHOTO)<\/p>\n
That was still better than most of the Australians, with Cassie Porter\u2019s one-under 70 the best of a mostly bad bunch.<\/p>\n
Hannah Green and Robyn Choi both carded level-par 71s but the rest have second-round work to do to make the halfway cut.<\/p>\n
Minjee Lee and Steph Kyriacou were both two under on the front nine before crashing and signing for 75s, a four-over score Grace Kim matched.<\/p>\n
![\"Minjee\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1785462015_567_.jpeg\")
Minjee Lee had a 40 on the back nine. (AP PHOTO)<\/p>\n
Karis Davidson (76), Kelsey Bennett (77) and Justice Bosio (79) are also well off the pace.<\/p>\n
Thitikul had her best chance to win a major at the Evian a year ago when Aussie Kim pulled off a stunning playoff victory. She\u2019s yet to contend in a major this year, but is off to a great start in the final one.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew that I haven\u2019t won one yet, but I feel like I\u2019m so young and then I still had I don\u2019t know how many majors ahead of me,\u201d Thitikul said. \u201cI feel like one day it will come if I do my job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kuwaki, who has won twice this year on the Japan LPGA, playing in only her seventh LPGA major. She also had three straight birdies on the front nine and dropped only one shot.<\/p>\n
Celine Boutier and Yealimi Noh each shot 67 to be three behind. Charley Hull, another player often reminded she has yet to win a major, was in the large group of players at 69.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jeeno Thitikul has taken the first step towards the missing prize of her career after starting the Women\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":834818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[28634,4225,64,63,29756,755,138747,327243,121700,58251,30658,21225,405163,115133,406652,85,3586,12632],"class_list":["post-835130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-aig-womens-open","tag-article","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cassie-porter","tag-golf","tag-golf-digest","tag-haeran-ryu","tag-jeeno-thitikul","tag-lpga","tag-lydia-ko","tag-nelly-korda","tag-overseas-sport","tag-ra","tag-royal-lytham-st-annes-golf-club","tag-sports","tag-united-kingdom","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835130","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=835130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}