FRISCO, Texas — At solely 22 years outdated, Atthaya “Jeeno” Thitikul has achieved rather a lot within the recreation. The world No. 2 has 5 profession wins, 47 top-10s and $11 million in winnings. In 2022, the then-19-year-old joined Lydia Ko as the one youngsters to achieve world No. 1 standing.
However now she faces the query all younger golfers confront as they ascend:
When is a serious breakthrough coming?
Thitikul has seven top-10 finishes in main championships in her profession. She has flashed however has but to ship on the most important levels and hasn’t discovered herself within the combine since final 12 months’s Chevron Championship, the place she grabbed the lead on Saturday solely to complete 72-76 and plummet out of competition. She hasn’t carded a top-10 end in her final 5 main begins. That run has included missed cuts on the 2024 Evian and this 12 months’s U.S. Girls’s Open at Erin Hills.
Majors outline careers. Their weight, particularly for individuals who have but to crest the mountain, might be crippling. The longer a serious win takes, the heavier the burden.
However Thitikul doesn’t look like carrying that stress this week on the KPMG Girls’s PGA Championship at Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco, because of a uncommon perspective.
“Each main, I simply wish to make the lower, to be trustworthy,” Thitikul mentioned Tuesday. “It will be actually nice to win it, and positively I can inform that it could be like everybody desires to win a serious. To me, what I’ve now underneath my belt, I’m fairly pleased with all I’ve achieved. If I can get it, it could be nice, but when not, I don’t have something to remorse.”
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Earlier this 12 months on the Chevron, Thitikul pointed to her age and early stage in her profession as causes she hadn’t but felt the key championship warmth.
“I might see that as a difficult factor,” Thitikul mentioned. “Like, one problem to do. I’m not saying it’s traumatic as a result of I do know I’m nonetheless younger and lots of alternative will come ahead.
“I simply reply myself if I’m not profitable any main [until] I retire, if I’m going to be remorse or I’m going to be unhappy about that, and I might say I’m not. I’m pondering all of the issues that I’ve been doing out right here on the tour, [if] I’ve finished sufficient, after which I give all of it 100%, and I simply let or not it’s extra pure. If I get it, I’ll get it. If not, it’s simply extra issues to do, greater than life, greater than golf.”
That viewpoint is the product of a journey that noticed Thitikul hone her abilities on the driving vary in Ratchaburi, Thailand, a small city not removed from Bangkok that doesn’t have its personal course. Thitikul’s grandfather launched her to golf, and her purpose as she has climbed the game’s ladder has been to supply her household with a great life. Given her profession earnings up to now, Thitikul believes she has finished that and that monetary safety additionally helps her strategy majors with out specializing in the financial side.
“It positively helps rather a lot to not likely take into consideration [making cuts],” Thitikul mentioned on the Chevron about her profession earnings. “Possibly some folks [are] nonetheless occupied with the cash, what they [are] going to make on the tournaments. However I’m not likely occupied with making a living.”
But it surely’s additionally the present of youth.
Thitikul continues to be unburdened by the expertise that comes with age. There is no such thing as a concern, no fear, as a result of every little thing continues to be in entrance of her. The sand has barely begun to feed by means of the hourglass. When there’s solely gentle in entrance of you, you don’t must concern the setting solar.
However whether or not or not Thitikul feels the stress of grand expectations, these will proceed to be positioned upon her. That’s the worth of world-beating expertise.
Thitikul will step on the tee field Thursday, alongside two superstars in Nelly Korda and Lydia Ko, armed together with her distinctive perspective and the fearlessness of youth shielding her from the key stress being thrust at her. Maybe come Sunday at Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco, that freedom will end in major-championship glory.
