Thitikul collected a monster cheque for $US4 million ($A6.2 million) – the biggest in women’s golf history – after successfully defending her Tour Championship crown with a commanding four-shot triumph in Naples.<\/p>\n
The 22-year-old closed with four-under-par 68 to finish with a remarkable 26-under 262 tournament total.<\/p>\n
The $US8 million ($A12.89 million) Thitikul has pocketed for back-to-back victories at Tiburon Golf Club ranks as the second-highest earn at the same tournament over a two-year period in the history of all women’s sport.<\/p>\n
Only tennis star Aryna Sabalenka, with $US8.6 million ($A13.32 million) earned from her 2024 and 2025 US Open triumphs, has won more. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
In addition to the mega money and successive season-ending titles, Thitikul secured player of the year honours and the Vare Trophy for the LPGA Tour’s lowest-ever scoring average for 2025, eclipsing the great Annika Sorenstan’s 2002 record.<\/p>\n
“Definitely means a lot,” Thitikul said.<\/p>\n
“Back then, when I was six years old, I’m just a really young kid that had no idea what LPGA was, what a world No.1 looked like.<\/p>\n
“But as I’m stepping here on the LPGA Tour, I know our part is playing golf but also inspiring the next generation is part of our job as well.”<\/p>\n
After dominating all week and starting the final round with a six-stroke buffer, she briefly had her lead cut to two shots by fellow Thai Pajaree Anannarukarn on Sunday (Monday AEST).<\/p>\n
But Anannarukarn’s challenge stalled down the stretch.<\/p>\n
Still, after being the last player to qualify for the 60-player field, Anannarukarn walked away with a life-changing $US1 million ($A1.55 million) runner-up prize following her sizzling final-round 66.<\/p>\n
“There is a lot of things to take away for sure,” the 26-year-old said.<\/p>\n
A hole-out eagle from the fairway bunker on the par-4 11th was the spark for world No.2 Nelly Korda to finish outright third, six shots behind Thitikul, after a final-round 68.<\/p>\n
Winless in 2025 after lifting seven trophies last year, Korda finished at 20 under, one stroke ahead of Gaby Lopez in fourth after the Mexican’s 62-65 weekend flurry.<\/p>\n
Kyriacou stormed home to join world No.4 Minjee Lee as the leading Australians in a tie for 13th after producing a rollercoaster equal low round of the day featuring a hole in one among two eagles, five birdies, three bogeys and eight pars.<\/p>\n
Kyriacou was ambling along at one over for her round through five holes before bursting to life with her second ace of the season on the par-3 eighth. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Incredibly, Kyriacou’s nine-iron ace – after also jagging one at the British Open – came barely half an hour after her South Korean playing partner Hye-Jin Choi holed out on the fifth hole.<\/p>\n
“So when I had mine I was like, ‘This is like a joke; this never happens’,” Kyriacou said.<\/p>\n
“Yeah, it was a pretty 10-out-of-10 shot. Hitting right towards it. I picked up my tee and went to the side and everyone started cheering.<\/p>\n
“Couldn’t see it go in but heard it from the cheers.”<\/p>\n
The exciting Kyriacou also boasts a rare albatross in 2025 and typically closed out her year with a spectacular four-under-par run over the last three holes to rocket up the leaderboard with a final-round six-under 66.<\/p>\n
Lee had surged to outright second early on Saturday but ultimately endured a disappointing weekend to also finish at 12 under after a last-round 71.<\/p>\n
Fellow Australian 2025 major winner Grace Kim (69) tied for 26th at 10 under, with Hannah Green (71) equal 51st at two under.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thitikul collected a monster cheque for $US4 million ($A6.2 million) – the biggest in women’s golf history –…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-302543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}