Thailand’s World Golf Star

Thailand has been a hotbed of new golfing talent over the last few years and while the men have struggled to make an impact lately, barring the redoubtable Thongchai Jaidee on the Champions Tour, the women continue to lead the way on the LPGA tour. The Kingdom currently has nine players in the Rolex world ranking top 100 but the undoubted star of the show is 22-year-old Jeeno Thitikul, who burst onto the scene in 2017 by becoming the youngest golfer to ever win a professional event at 14 years and 7 months of age, a record since broken. Unlike some of these young stars that arrive on the golfing scene she has continued her improvement and is currently ranked at number 2 in the world behind only Nelly Korda, the exceptional American star.

After that early win in 2017 Jeeno turned pro in 2020 and concentrated on the Thai LGPA tour where she secured 5 wins, amazing stuff for her rookie season. The following year saw her turn her attention to the European Tour where she had another record-breaking season, securing two further titles and a host of top ten finishes, which made her the winner of the European order of merit at her first attempt. She also won the European rookie of the year, the players player of the year and just for good measure, finished third in December of that year in the American LGPA qualifying school to earn her place on the big stage in the States.

To say that Jeeno has been a success on the main LGPA tour would be a massive understatement. Since 2022 she has played with remarkable consistency, securing 5 wins and multiple top ten finishes over the past three years including the unprecedented $4,000,000 (4 million) prize awarded to the winner of the CME Group Tour Championship in November of last year. The remarkable high standard that she keeps her golf game up to makes her a threat in every tournament where she tees it up and having had five top six finishes already in the “Majors”, it can only be a matter of time before she secures her first title. She really is a once in a generation talent and if you get the chance to watch her live at the Honda LGPA Thailand Open next year, go along and take a look because this 22-year-old really is something special.