Jeeno Thitikul will play in the last group on Sunday for the second consecutive start when she tees it up in the final round of the Buick LPGA Shanghai alongside Minjee Lee and 54-hole leader Minami Katsu. Thitikul and Lee sit two strokes back of Katsu and will both be looking to do something that hasn’t been done this season on the LPGA Tour – become the first two-time winner of the year.

“Every time that I play in contention on Sunday, it's really excitement on it and then nervous for sure,” Thitkul said after her round on Saturday at Qizhong Garden Golf Club. “Like 18 holes, 18 opportunities for everyone. Not just for me. So trying my best.”

The opportunity for Thitikul to become the first athlete with multiple wins in 2025 is something that the Thailand native has enjoyed more than once this year, having already won the Mizuho Americas Open back in May.

She carded back-to-back runner-up finishes in her last two starts on the LPGA Tour at the FM Championship and the Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G in September. Last month, Thitikul came painfully close to capturing her second win of the season in Hamilton Township, Ohio, when she suffered a disappointing four-putt bogey on the 72nd hole to finish behind winner Charley Hull.

“If you told me I can get second in every tournament this year for the whole season, 30-something, I'll take it,” Thitikul said about her performance in recent weeks. “What I’m learning is the five wins that I have on the LPGA is the past as well, so I don't carry on my shoulder. I don't carry it in my head.”

While Thitikul has learned to make peace with her close calls, that’s not to say she isn’t eager to try and chase down a win on Sunday. And the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 1 has positioned herself to do just that, thanks to a bogey-free third round in which she found every single green and missed just four fairways.

The 22-year-old might have given up her most putts of the week with 30, but she still managed to post a round of 66 to climb into the final group on Sunday, where she’s hoping to continue to take advantage of what she has described as gettable scoring conditions, as the course played to its shortest length on Saturday at just over 6,500 yards.

“I don't think I'm doing anything special. I think it's just golf, where it's some of the day you play really good and some of the day you not that fancy,” Thitikul said about her round on Saturday. “I think yesterday I had not a really good iron shots, so I think today I have a better iron shots-wise, which is giving me more opportunities than yesterday.”

Thitikul is in position to give herself even more birdie chances in the final round, as she finds herself in familiar territory heading into Sunday in Shanghai. For the 12th time this season on the LPGA Tour, Thitikul is within five strokes of the lead entering the final day of play, and a victory on Sunday wouldn’t just make her the first two-time winner of the year, but it would also mark her first victory since ascending to the top of the Rolex Rankings in August.

“The best thing that I can do is being aggressive,” said the world No. 1 about her strategy on Sunday as she looks to chase down her sixth career win on the LPGA Tour. “And then trying to make putts because I know that's all the players out there going to be and trying to make as much as I wanted to make, too.”

Jeeno Thitikul Positioned to Chase Down Second Win of the Season in Shanghai

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