World No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul saw No. 2 Nelly Korda’s incredible -8 round in the morning, and decided to one up her with the lowest round of the week, a -9 63.
On a day with attackable pins and a scoring setup, players in the afternoon had to follow up some low numbers from the morning groups to keep their leads. Thitikul did that and then some.
Trailing leader Somi Lee by three strokes heading into the round, Thitikul wasted no time grabbing a share of the lead right off the bat, getting birdies on the first two holes while Lee had a bogey on the first. Thitikul continued to have her foot on the gas pedal, with birdies on holes six, eight and nine to go out in 31.
On the second nine, Thitikul had quick birdies again on 10, 11 and 13, setting up a potentially really special round. She did slow a bit, including a par on the par 5 14, but grabbed a birdie coming in on the easy par 5 17, to finish up with a -9 63.
Thitikul was pretty ridiculous, hitting 13 fairways and missing only one green on the day, on the 18th hole where she was about a foot off the putting surface.
As is usually the case, Thitikul was dominant with her putter as well, needing only 26 putts.
For the moment, it looks like it’ll be a tall task to catch up to Thitikul, who is the defending champion on this course and holds a three-stroke lead over Sei Young Kim. With a win, Thitikul would lock up her first LPGA Tour Player of the Year award and her third win of the season, becoming the only player to accomplish that this year.
