CHONBURI, Thailand (AP) \u2014 World No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul justified her top billing in emphatic fashion after edging Japan\u2019s Chizzy Iwai by one stroke to claim her home LPGA Thailand tournament for the first time.<\/p>\n
Buoyed by raucous home support, the Thai star kept her composure under sweltering conditions and intense pressure to card a closing 4-under-par 68, finishing at 24-under-par 264. <\/p>\n
The victory marked her eighth LPGA Tour title and her first triumph on home soil.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would rate it A-triple-plus,\u201d said the 23-year-old. \u201cI know it\u2019s not as big as the majors, but winning in my home country means so much to me \u2014 sometimes even more than a major.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thitikul became the third Thai winner of the tournament, following Ariya Jutanugarn in 2021 and Patty Tavatanakit in 2024.<\/p>\n
The win was made even more special with her mother watching in person after the Thai had made eight previous attempts at the event.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mom came up to me after I finished 18 and she cried a lot,\u201d Thitikul said. \u201cI told her \u2018I finally won in front of you.\u2019 She was emotional, and that made me emotional, too.\u201d <\/p>\n
World No. 19 Iwai mounted a strong challenge, drawing level briefly after rolling in her second eagle of the day on the par-5 10th. <\/p>\n
However, the Japanese golfer added no further birdies and signed for a 66 to finish runner-up at 23-under-par 265.<\/p>\n
Canadian Brooke Henderson finished in a four-way tie for 38th at 8 under \u2014 16 strokes behind the winner. <\/p>\n
Korea\u2019s Kim Hyo joo, the world\u2019s No. 9-ranked player, posted a 68 to take third at 22-under-par 266, while compatriot Lee Somi, the opening-round leader, finished fourth at 21-under-par 267.<\/p>\n
Former world No. 1 Lydia Ko carded a 68 to tie for fifth alongside Denmark\u2019s Nanna Koerstz Madsen, who produced the lowest round of the day with a scintillating 63 as both ended the week on 20-under-par 268.<\/p>\n
Defending champion Angel Yin shot 70 and was in a tie for 48th at 5-under 283.<\/p>\n
The tournament about 125 kilometres east of Bangkok was the first of three events in Asia in consecutive weeks, to be followed by those in Singapore and China in the so-called early Asian swing on the LPGA Tour.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP golf: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/golf<\/p>\n
Lerpong Amsa-ngiam, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHONBURI, Thailand (AP) \u2014 World No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul justified her top billing in emphatic fashion after edging…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-494625","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\/494625","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=494625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}