World No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul Ends Improbable LPGA Streak With Dramatic Win

Down four strokes with five to play, Thitikul claimed the Buick LPGA Shanghai in a five-hole playoff.

Jeeno Thitikul became the LPGA's first repeat champion of 2025 in a dramatic playoff. / Hu Chengwei/Getty Images

World No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul has a flair for the dramatic. 

Down four with five holes to play at the Buick LPGA Shanghai, the 22-year-old from Thailand began an improbable run. A birdie on No. 14. Another on No. 15. Again on No. 16, and then an eagle on 17. 

That would force a playoff with Japan’s Minami Katsu, who narrowly missed a putt for the outright win on the 72nd hole after chipping in for birdie on No. 17. 

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The two would exchange four consecutive pars, but on the fifth and final playoff hole, Thitikul sealed the deal by hitting her approach to 3 feet. 

“I knew that one of us need to make a birdie to be able to win the tournament,” said Thitikul, who shot a final-round 63. “So I think I just had a really good yardage on 10, the last one, pitching wedge, which is I didn’t hit quite approaching shots that I have been in the playoff, but the last one was the best one so far. Have it not too far from the pin and be able to hole the putt, I think it just releasing off everything that like I have on my mind like the last putt.”

The win, however, ended an improbable stat on the LPGA this season. 

Thitikul, who won the Mizuho Americas Open in New Jersey earlier this year, is the first repeat champion of the season. Entering this week, the tour had a record 26 different champions in 26 events. 

The shot that won Jeeno the trophy in Shanghai 🏌️‍♀️🏆 pic.twitter.com/ahJ3EDyIKu

— LPGA (@LPGA) October 12, 2025

“I did came close for a couple time this year, but I feel like every week it’s going to be only one player that can be outstanding and then just some dramatic finish for each tournament,” Thitikul said. “I think it’s a good sign, to be honest. It’s a good sign for the LPGA Tour. It’s just meaning that, you know, like the field get stronger and the tour gets tougher and stronger to be able to win even once.”

She has won this year and reclaimed the world No. 1 ranking over Nelly Korda, but Thitikul has also experienced a series of near-misses. She fell short of her first major title at the Evian Championship, in which Grace Kim claimed in a dramatic three-hole playoff. And last month, Thitikul, leading by a stroke, four-putted from 50 feet on the final hole of the Kroger Queen City Championship to hand Charley Hull the win in regulation. 

Those were learning experiences. 

“Definitely cried a lot (after the Kroger Queen City Championship),” Thitikul said. “Not going lie, cried quite a lot. And then I do have like, you know, a really amazing off week, which is we spend time with no golf in Canada and then just like remind me that whatever it's happen, it’s the past. And then I’m a human, which is I make a mistake for sure, and then everyone does.”

And less than a month later, she was able to return to the winner’s circle, with Katsu suffering the gut-wrenching defeat.

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