Jeeno Thitikul signed off the 2024 LPGA Tour season in style on Sunday as she emerged victorious at the CME Group Tour Championship to claim the biggest winner’s cheque in women’s golf history.
After a gritty battle with USA’s Angel Yin, the Thai star came up clutch finishing eagle-birdie for the second day in a row to fire a 65 (-7) and win by one shot in Naples, Florida. In the process, the 21-year-old earned a 16th career title and took home the record-breaking $4 million cash prize.
The win is Jeeno’s fourth on the LPGA and comes just three years on from her breakthrough 2021 season on the Ladies European Tour (LET) – one where she claimed two victories en route to winning the Order of Merit, Players’ Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year triple.
Back in 2017, Thitikul also made history when she became the youngest winner in LET history claiming the Ladies European Thailand Championship as an amateur at the age of 14 years, four months and 19 days. The magnificent feat is still yet to be broken.
“I don’t know what happened to me on 17 and 18,” the 21-year-old said after winning on Sunday. “I really [needed to] make a birdie on 17, which gave me a good chance. But making eagle, it’s more than I can ask for. And then hitting really, really good second shot on 18 and hole the putt, it’s just like, all the hard work that I’ve been, it’s just like pay off.”
As part of the victory, Thitikul takes home a $4 million cheque courtesy of CME Group, the largest in women’s golf history and one of the largest single prizes in all of women’s sports.
But that is not the only seven-figure amount of money that the 21-year-old earned at the CME Group Tour Championship. Earlier on in the week, following the conclusion of The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican, it was confirmed that Thitikul had won the 2024 Aon Risk Reward Challenge, a season-long award that comes with its own $1 million prize.
With her win on Sunday at Tiburón Golf Club, Thitikul’s single-week earnings at the season’s last event now total $5 million. She also earned the Money Title with $6,059,309 in season earnings and is the 2024 Race to the CME Globe champion after her win at Tiburón Golf Club.
“Like I said, my million is good enough, at Aon. I think I’m at the point that I’m not really thinking about the prize money that much,” she said. “Like Lydia Ko said at Grant Thornton, we’re not here for the prize money. We here for growing the game of golf more.”
With Yin finishing runner-up after a sensational week of her own in Florida, Olympic Gold Medallist Lydia Ko fired a final round 63 (-9) to finish in solo third. The finish caps of a remarkable year for the New Zealander who also won the AIG Women’s Open and entered the LPGA Hall of Fame following her Paris heroics.
Nelly Korda ended the season as LPGA Rolex Player of the Year. The World No 1 registered seven wins in 2024 and tied for fifth in the season finale on 15-under alongside South Korea’s Narin An.
Japan’s Ayaka Furue, winner of The Amundi Evian Championship, claimed the Vare Trophy. She is the first Japanese player to win the award. Meanwhile compariot Mao Saigo took home the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year award.
