It’s not just Nelly’s world. Jeeno Thitikul defends Mizuho title to collect ninth LPGA title

World No. 2 Jeeno Thitikul recently lost her top ranking, but she was back on top of a leaderboard again on Sunday.

Thitikul defended her title to win the Mizuho Americas Open at Mountain Ridge in New Jersey, holding a two-shot lead heading into the final round. It grew to five and was cut to one at the turn by good friend Ruoning Yin, but she never lost the lead and closed it out by shooting a final-round 69 to win at 134-under 275 total. Yin finished second, four shots back.

World No. 1 Nelly Korda did not play in this event after winning back-to-back titles in the Chevron Championship and Riviera Maya Open.

Thitkiul had a rare missed cut at the Chevron Championship two weeks ago. Now she’s a two-time winner this season.

“I talked to my coach [Kris Asswapimonporn] and I was like, ‘you know what? Golf isn't your life. Golf is just golf.’ When you miss cuts or you're not hitting well, it's hard to act like you're OK,” Thitikul said. “I was disappointed. I was upset to not be able to make the weekend on the first major. You have to accept it and I had to move on. The good thing in golf is you have a lot of opportunities the whole year.

“You’ve got maybe 30 tournaments in a year and every week you can reset and have a new chance to be able to do it again. The future is always waiting for you. I’m really happy to get the job done this week really quick after the missed cut.”

This was the ninth LPGA victory of Thitkiul’s young career, and it was her 58th career top-10 finish. She now has the second-most wins on tour since 2022 (her rookie season), trailing Korda, who has 11 since then.

The 23-year-old becomes the fourth multiple winner on tour this season, joining Korda, Hyo Joo Kim and Hannah Green, who are all ranked top 10 in the world. That’s more than the three multiple event winners all of last season on tour. (New Jersey native Aphrodite Deng, who played in the final group with Thitkiul, defended her title in the junior portion of this event.)

Yin was the first to spray Thitikul with champagne. Last year, Yin wasn’t there for the celebration on the green. In a post-round interview with Golf Channel, Yin joked: “she gave me [crap] for not being there last year.”

The friends had quite the celebration this time.

“It was funny. Even Buick and CME last year I didn't saw her on my celebration on the green. I was texting like, ‘yo, where are you? I was really expecting you to be there,’” Thitkuil said with a laugh. “She had an emergency situation. I kind of understand that or not. Having her by my side as a best friend but on the golf course we trying to beat each other every time.

“I know that I'm going to play with her for long, long time and we are going to have a battle out there on the course for a long, long time.”