Two weeks ago, Jeeno Thitikul arrived at the Chevron Championship and admitted she hears all the noise about her inability to win a major championship. The then-No. 1-ranked player in the world called it the “challenge” of her career to finally get it over the line at the biggest events.
Two days later, Jeeno Thitikul missed the cut at Memorial Park as Nelly Korda went on to win her third major and reclaim the top spot in the Rolex Rankings. Thitikul took a week off after her early exit in Houston and returned to action this week to defend her title at the Mizuho Americas Open. Thitikul has always approached her career with great perspective, that of someone who learned the game at a driving range in Ratchaburi, Thailand, a small town not far from Bangkok that doesn’t have its own course. Someone who has already achieved more than she thought possible. Thitikul wants to win a major, but she is also content with everything she has already accomplished in the game. There’s pressure to win a major because that’s a dream of hers, but not because she needs validation from others.
“I don’t think I have to prove anything to like even other players or people or myself, because like what I have I already proved for a long, long time,” Thitikul said on Friday at Mountain Ridge Country Club. “
It’s just a certain time that golf seems easy for you. Then I have a certain time [where] golf is so hard for me, which is Chevron, it’s one of the weeks that I feel like, ‘What did I do wrong?’ … I’m like, ‘What did golf do to me right now?’ And then coming to this week, didn’t expect anything, to be honest. ”
Thitikul won earlier this season in Thailand but has been struggling with her game since the LPGA returned to America in March. After bowing out of the Chevron early, Thitikul spoke with her coach about the issues with her swing, primarily her iron play, and they decided to attack her title defense at Mizuho with a new mentality.
Try less.
“When you put the work [in] and don’t see the results, sometimes you are really disappointed,” Thitikul said earlier this week at Mizuho. “He said, ‘Maybe, don’t try.’ Then, if you don’t try, maybe you don’t expect anything.”
That mindset shift freed up Thitikul this week in West Caldwell, New Jersey. The 23-year-old opened with rounds of 67 and 69 to take a three-shot lead into the weekend. Celine Boutier closed the gap to two after the third round, but Thitikul put the tournament away on Sunday. She birdied the second and third holes while Boutier bogeyed three straight to fall out of contention. While Boutier faded, Ruoning Yin made five birdies on the front nine to get within one of Thitikul, but bogeys at 11 and 16 stalled her championship run, and Thitikul punctuated her title defense by pouring in a 20-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to finish at 13 under and win by four.
In the end, trying less got Jeeno Thitikul where she wanted to go.
“It helped me a lot,” Thitikul said of her new mindset after the win. “I just stayed in my bubble, stayed on what I can do. [If] golf is not going to be good, then golf is not going to be good. My life is not changing. I think what I have to think about is just what I can control.”
As is always the case with Thitikul, the title glow was quickly consumed by questions about when her major breakthrough will come. With the U.S. Women’s Open at Riviera a month away, Thitikul’s mind and game appear to be shaping up at the right time.
That’s something Jeeno Thitikul wants. But it’s not something the World No. 2 will stress over. If her major victory comes, it comes. If it doesn’t, Jeeno Thitikul will be just fine.
“Yeah, that’s always been a dream,” Thitikul said of winning a major. “I will say dream, not goal, to be able to win a major. But I don’t want to put anything on my shoulders right now. I just took all of it out. I just play golf.
“Whether I win a major or not, I think I’ve got enough.”
