Welcome back to the Monday Finish, where we\u2019re thankful for golf. And for you. Without both, we very literally wouldn\u2019t be here. To the golf news!<\/p>\n
Other than Scottie Scheffler, every golf winner is unexpected, which helps us a bit in choosing five this week. But as we enter golf\u2019s offseason (this is a running bit, we enter golf\u2019s offseason basically every week, there is no offseason) it\u2019s worth calling out a few.<\/p>\n
5 unexpected winners this week1. Jeeno Thitikul (and her new commissioner)<\/p>\n
For most of the LPGA season, one storyline ruled: there were no repeat winners. Through 25 weeks, 26 different players had won an event<\/a> (24 individual winners plus the two-player Dow Championship) which was a statistical oddity as well as a clear expression of the circuit\u2019s depth and talent. But it was also something of a concern. Any and every sports league needs star power, needs recognizable faces in the mix, needs recurring characters. Sure, 2024 was the year of Nelly Korda. Would 2025 be the year of \u2026 everybody else?<\/p>\n Nah.<\/p>\n Jeeno Thitikul was hardly a surprise; she won the final event of 2024 (the CME Group Tour Championship) and the Mizuho Americas Open in April. She took over the crown of World No. 1, too. But because she stacked heartbreaking runner-up finishes instead of wins (four second-place finishes in 2025, including three in five starts from July-September) it felt like her year would be defined by near-misses. But then she flipped the script, winning the Buick LPGA Shanghai in October and then repeating at this weekend\u2019s big-money CME, where she ran and hid from the field and wound up winning by four.<\/p>\n It was an appropriately dominant result for what was ultimately a dominant season.<\/p>\n The numbers and awards tell an important story: Lowest scoring average ever. Most money ever. Rolex Player of the Year. Vare Trophy winner. And so on. But that\u2019s just part of what I hope becomes an even bigger story: a girl from small-town Thailand who learned golf on a local driving range<\/a> is now World No. 1, a main face of the LPGA, a dominant player and a delightful, thoughtful interview.<\/p>\n \u201cLots of things happen in just one year, for sure,\u201d she said after her win on Sunday. \u201cYou see me hold the trophy today, but you see me crying for sure for the four-putt I had earlier [this season]. Nothing you can predict with golf. Anything can happen. You can\u2019t control anybody else. But what lasts long is your hard work, your discipline, and like, your passion about golf.\u201d<\/p>\n Her win capped off a massively successful few weeks for her league\u2019s new frontman, commissioner Craig Kessler. While his tour waded into controversial waters \u2014\u00a0plenty of ink was spilled about Kai Trump as well as the LPGA\u2019s new Saudi partnership \u2014 he scored a far more substantive win in bolstering the LPGA\u2019s coverage throughout the years to come. The season-ending CME felt big because of that news, because of Jeeno\u2019s win, even because of little stuff like the early-week awards ceremony, speeches, red carpet. The LPGA\u2019s season of anonymity finished with optimism and with star power. Nelly and Jeeno and whoever\u2019s next. Let\u2019s hope 2026 picks up where 2025 left off.<\/p>\n 2. Sami Valimaki (and the nation of Finland)<\/p>\n He was already a two-time DP World Tour winner and a two-time PGA Tour runner-up. Now Sami Valimaki is a winner with a two-year exemption on the PGA Tour \u2014\u00a0and the first winner in Finland\u2019s history.<\/p>\n If you were to make up a quick story for a Finnish golf pro\u2019s background, you might get pretty close to Valimaki, who was a hockey forward with a nice shot and dreams of an NHL future.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was kind of my whole idea, but they didn\u2019t pick me for the national team,\u201d he recounted on Sunday, post-win. \u201cSo they picked me on the golf national team. I said, okay, let\u2019s give it a go for this one, and this road has been working out well.\u201d<\/p>\n You can say that again.<\/p>\n (More on who snagged PGA Tour cards \u2014\u00a0and who didn\u2019t \u2014\u00a0here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n 3. Dan Brown (we think)<\/p>\n In this case we\u2019re not talking about the Da Vinci Code author but instead the English golfer who finished at No. 11 in the DP World Tour\u2019s list of pros to receive PGA Tour promotion. That would seem like an unfortunate spot for Dan Brown \u2014\u00a0unless one of the top 10 dropped out of contention before the end of 2025. That\u2019s now a possibility, according to a report<\/a> from Sports Business Journal that Laurie Canter is set to return to LIV Golf despite qualifying for the PGA Tour.<\/p>\n There are layers to this. Canter was set to be the first ex-LIV pro to earn his PGA Tour card; that\u2019s obviously now up in the air. He\u2019s currently some version of \u201cSchrodinger\u2019s Golfer,\u201d existing in ultimate limbo between DP World Tour status, PGA Tour status and LIV Golf status. Until we hear more from him or his new team, we won\u2019t know for sure. But Brown will hope he makes things official in the next month\u2026<\/p>\n 4. Anthony Kim (and a few former coworkers)<\/p>\n Certain Asian Tour events feel like expanded LIV events, none more so than this week\u2019s PIF Saudi International, which was sponsored by LIV\u2019s financial backers, held in LIV\u2019s home country and included a top 10 comprised entirely of 2025 LIV Golfers.<\/p>\n The winner was notable, Jose Luis Ballester, a young Spaniard and 2024 U.S. Amateur champ who signed with LIV earlier this year. He leapt from outside the top 1000 in the Official World Golf Ranking to No. 264; he and runner-up Caleb Surratt (who climbed to No. 244) reminded us they each have the game to compete with the best on their circuit and beyond.<\/p>\n