Staff WriterOn a sweltering afternoon at Honda LPGA Thailand, the world’s top-ranked player finally gave the home crowd what they’ve been craving for nearly a decade: a Thai world No.1 lifting Thailand’s only LPGA trophy.
Jeeno Thitikul, calm as a monk at rush hour and just as unhurried, closed with a composed four-under-par 68 to finish 24-under and claim her eighth LPGA title – and her first on home soil.
For a player who’s been hoovering up silverware around the world, Honda LPGA Thailand was the one that wouldn’t quite fall into line. Now it has.
A champion at home, at last
Thitikul began the day with expectation hanging off her shoulders like a tour bag. By the time she signed her card, she’d produced six birdies against two bogeys, hitting 13 of 14 fairways and 13 of 18 greens in regulation, then tidying up with a brisk 28 putts. It was not a flawless procession, but then, as she was quick to point out, it didn’t need to be.
“Me and my coach — I mean, like my coach saw me all the time before coming here, we practicing, and then I kind of stress out and I have a lot of swing thought to think about for the irons. But obviously I don’t know how I came to this position to win the tournament. I think it’s just proving yourself that you don’t have to like need a perfect like shots all the time to be able to win the tournaments. You just need confidence and a lot of commitment on it.”
If that sounds like the internal monologue of every golfer who has ever stood over a mid-iron with too many thoughts and not enough time, it’s also the distilled philosophy of the Rolex Rankings No.1: trust, commit, and accept that perfection is optional.
The victory continues an almost absurdly efficient run. This was Thitikul’s second start of the 2026 season and already her first win, her third triumph in her last five LPGA appearances, and her third consecutive season with at least one victory. She leaves Pattaya leading the 2026 Race to CME Globe, with season earnings already north of $300,000 and career official money now at approximately $17.7m.
Completing the Thai trilogy
For Thai golf, Honda LPGA Thailand has become a kind of national mirror – a chance to see its best measured on home turf. With this win, Thitikul becomes the third Thai champion of the event, joining Patty Tavatanakit (2024) and Ariya Jutanugarn (2021).
It is also a full-circle moment. Thitikul first appeared here as a sponsor invite and amateur in 2017 and again in 2019, a prodigy in a field of established stars. Now she returns as an eight-time LPGA winner, 2025 Rolex Player of the Year, two-time Vare Trophy holder, and the owner of the single-season scoring record – that scarcely believable 68.68 average she posted in 2025.
Add in the 2024 Aon Risk Reward Challenge title, Rookie of the Year honours in 2022, and appearances for Thailand at the Hanwha LIFEPLUS International Crown and the Paris 2024 Olympics, and the home crowd weren’t just watching a star – they were watching the current standard.
On Sunday, she lived up to the billing.
Iwai’s career week falls one short
If Thitikul supplied the storybook ending, Honda LPGA Thailand also gave us a compelling supporting act. Chizzy Iwai, who has been quietly trending upwards, produced the best tournament of her LPGA career, finishing one stroke adrift at 23-under-par 265 – her lowest four-round total, bettering the 269 she set at the 2025 Standard Portland Classic.
Her closing round was as clinical as they come: six-under, bogey-free, with two birdies and two eagles, at the par-5 7th and 10th, the sort of double-eagle combination that tends to make the rest of the field glance nervously at the leaderboards. She hit every fairway (14 out of 14), found 12 of 18 greens and needed only 25 putts. On another week, that’s the winning line.
Afterwards, Iwai’s focus was less on the near-miss and more on what it might mean for the months ahead.
“I have a lot of — I get a lot of confidence that play today, so, yeah, I feel more get confidence and then trust my instincts, trust myself. It’s going to be fun this season.”
On the evidence of her work in Thailand, the LPGA’s season just got a little more interesting.
Kim’s winter work pays off
In third place, Hyo Joo Kim carded a final-round 68 of her own, a bogey-free effort with four birdies that looked, from tee to green, like a masterclass in control. Her week was defined by ruthless precision off the tee: across four rounds at Honda LPGA Thailand, she hit 54 of 56 fairways, the sort of statistic that would make a metronome blush.
She matched Thitikul for most birdies made across the week with 25 and walked away with her best finish in ten appearances at this tournament – a reassuring return given this was her first start of 2026.
“I trained really hard during the winter and I think I was able to come out in Thailand. And I think my length definitely grew. My hits went further and that was able to come out. So I think the season will be meaningful.”
Meaningful, and if she keeps driving it like this, potentially very lucrative.
A stage for the next generation
Beyond the leaders, Honda LPGA Thailand also served as a showcase for homegrown promise. Thai amateur and sponsor invite Prim Prachnakorn finished T65, gaining a front-row education in life at the top level before she heads to the United States to play collegiate golf at the University of Oregon. Scoreboards tell only part of the story in weeks like this; the experience of four rounds in such company can be worth more than any prize cheque.
A week of low scoring and high standards
If you’re wondering whether the scoring was a touch brisk around Siam Country Club, the tournament record book supplies a fairly emphatic answer. Somi Lee’s second-round 61 this week matched the 18-hole record, equalling Akie Iwai’s 61 from the final round in 2025. Lee also set a new 36-hole benchmark at 127.
Angel Yin still owns a share of the 54-hole record at 195 (tied with Nanna Koerstz Madsen’s 2022 mark) and holds the 72-hole standard at 260, set last year. That Thitikul’s 24-under triumph did not quite topple that total says less about her performance than it does about the general level of pyrotechnics required to rewrite the history books at Honda LPGA Thailand.
What the numbers say about Thitikul
Strip away the emotion of a home victory and the numbers remain brutal in their simplicity. With this win:
- Thitikul now has eight LPGA Tour titles, 57 official top-10 finishes and career earnings around $17.7m.
- She has surpassed $300,000 in official earnings already this season.
- She has now won in three consecutive LPGA seasons and has three victories in her last five starts.
Last year alone she was the winningest player on Tour with three titles, including the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship, alongside Rolex Player of the Year honours and that second Vare Trophy. This week at Honda LPGA Thailand simply confirms what those trophies had already suggested: the No.1 ranking is not a temporary address.
A statement to start the season
For the galleries in Thailand, Jeeno Thitikul’s victory was a release as much as a celebration: a local icon finally lifting the nation’s flagship LPGA trophy. For the rest of the Tour, it was something else entirely – an opening statement from a player who has made a habit of turning seasons into personal exhibitions.
If this is how she plays while “stressed out” and worrying about her iron swing, the rest of 2026 may feel very long indeed for anyone hoping to chase her down.
