Staff WriterIf you’ve ever wondered what dreams look like when they grow up, they probably resemble Miranda Wang holding the trophy at the FM Championship.
The 24-year-old rookie from China carded a final-round 2-under 70 on Sunday to claim her first LPGA Tour victory, sealing it with a nerveless birdie on the par-4 17th.
Her four-day total of 268 wasn’t just a personal best—it rewrote the record books. Wang’s score shattered the tournament’s 72-hole scoring record, eclipsing the old mark by nine shots, and her 54-hole tally of 198 set another bar for the event.
“It’s a dream come true,” Wang said with a grin that could have powered the floodlights. “Winning LPGA has been my dream since actually since day one of my golf because I started playing golf because when I was eight years old I was watching LPGA tournament on TV. I was like oh, that’s I want to do and I want to be on this tour. I want to win out there. So I finally did this. Very proud of myself. (Smiling.)”
A Rookie Season for the Ages
Wang’s victory makes her the 11th Rolex First-Time Winner of the 2025 season and the seventh rookie to capture an LPGA title this year—numbers not seen since the disco era.
The win also lifted her 27 spots up the Race to CME Globe rankings to No. 30 and pushed her career earnings past the $1 million mark.
She joins Celine Boutier, Brittany Lang, and Leona Maguire as Duke University alumni with LPGA titles, and she becomes the first Chinese player to win on Tour since Ruoning Yin’s triumph at the 2024 Maybank Championship.
A Duel to the Finish
For much of Sunday, it looked like Jeeno Thitikul was about to spoil the party. The world No. 1 came out firing with six birdies in her opening 12 holes and led by one through 16. But a bogey on the 17th cracked the door open, and Wang promptly walked through it with her decisive birdie. Thitikul’s closing 65 left her one shot shy at 19-under.
“I know we’re doing our job and trying to do the best, but like a little part of our job is inspiring the next generation,” Thitikul said afterward. “If I saw the kid outside, I definitely want to wave and say hi to all the kids. I know it’s going to be a lot if I say hi to all of them, but I love inspiring them the way I am on the course.”
Fireworks Further Down the Board
The FM Championship didn’t lack for theatrics elsewhere. Sei Young Kim set a new 36-hole record of 130 en route to finishing third, her fourth straight top-15 finish.
Jin Hee Im tied the tournament’s 18-hole scoring record with a blistering, bogey-free 62 on Sunday, vaulting from T37 to T5 in the blink of an eye. “Definitely no,” she said when asked if she expected such fireworks. “But when I got the first two birdie I just kidding my caddie, I try just 18 more birdies, and I just made straight three birdies after that.”
And then there was Ariya Jutanugarn, who aced the 16th from 118 yards with a gap wedge—the only hole-in-one of the week.
The shot also triggered a $20,000 donation to St. Jude through the CME Group Cares Challenge. “I thought it’s went in the hole, so that’s it,” Jutanugarn laughed, proving that sometimes golf really is that simple.
The Local Favourite
While defending champion Haeran Ryu faded to T28, hometown ambassador Megan Khang finished T24 with family in tow. “It’s great,” Khang said. “My younger cousins have recently picked up golf… To see them kind of come out and rooting for me and see what I get to do week in and week out, it’s really cool.”
A Championship to Remember
Between Wang’s record-breaking rookie breakthrough, Thitikul’s world No. 1 showing, Im’s course-record fireworks, and Jutanugarn’s ace, the FM Championship delivered everything short of an Elvis sighting.
For Wang, though, it was a first step onto the stage she’s dreamed of since childhood—a victory that felt less like an arrival and more like the beginning of a career worth watching.
