Jeeno Thitikul kept her promise to herself at Mountain Ridge. The world No. 2 successfully defended her Mizuho Americas Open title on Sunday, sealing the win with an aggressive birdie on the 18th hole that, by her own admission, was very nearly a problem.
"It was too aggressive. I thought it was so hard, but it just luckily it went, you know, the lie was good and then that's how it went in," Thitikul said. "But if not, I might have like a traditional modern reach downhill putt again."
The 23-year-old Thai held off a charging Ruoning Yin, who had set herself up for a Sunday push by grinding a four-under-par round on Saturday despite a triple bogey at 15. Yin pulled within reach on the back nine, but Thitikul refused to look at the leaderboard for most of her round.
"Honestly, I didn't see the leaderboard at all and I didn't know the situations at all," Thitikul said. "I might know on like 12 or something by accidentally because the holes are really close to each other. I knew that she had a really good run on catching the leader and then I think it's just a normal day. Definitely you're the leader and then definitely the players will need to catch you up. But I just really stay in my bubble. I just really focus on my tempo, focus on what I couldn't control and then it's turned out to be good."
Mountain Ridge's greens, which Thitikul described as borderline impossible during the practice round, again decided the tournament. The Thai star praised the consistency of the setup all week, even as she conceded number nine had her caddy testing pin positions she could barely believe were legal.
"Every pin that my caddy put the plastic hole on, I was like, it's unplayable," Thitikul said. "It's all unplayable from every line, every misses from the green. If you're above the hole, you definitely can have an easily three putts for sure if you're not careful on it."
The win comes on the heels of a Chevron Championship missed cut that clearly stung. Thitikul said she leaned on her coach to reframe the disappointment before turning the page in New Jersey.
"Golf wasn't every like wasn't your life. Golf is just golf," Thitikul said. "But when you miss cuts or you're like not hitting well, it's hard to act like you're okay. The good thing is golf has a lot of opportunities in the whole year. You got maybe 30 tournaments in a year and every week, every day, you can reset it."
The LPGA's two-week storyline now has Thitikul winning at Mountain Ridge while Nelly Korda has won the previous two events, putting the world's top two players one and two on the early-season win counter. Asked whether she views it as the next great LPGA rivalry, Thitikul deflected to her standard process answer.
"World ranking or top players doesn't really define what I'm doing," Thitikul said. "I think I just trying to do my best out there, trying to be consistent as I can because I know it's going to be a really tough competition in and out every week, on and off every week, in different courses. The only thing you can do is just focus on yourself and keep getting better and better."
Thitikul also went out of her way to praise 16-year-old amateur Aphrodite Deng, with whom she played on Sunday and who she scored as a marker. Deng, the defending Mizuho Americas Open junior champion, finished her week with another respectable showing at Mountain Ridge.
"She played so good. She finishing like with maybe two, three under par for sure today because I wrote her score, I was her marker," Thitikul said. "She looks so young to me. She plays so good. I really think that we definitely going to have her on tour in the next two, three years for sure. She hit it straight, her putting was really good. Surprising me on the first hole, maybe seeing her get 30 or 40 foot putt on the first hole. I was like, wow, that's maybe motivated me to play a bit better golf as well today."
Thitikul's defence is her second LPGA win of 2026 and tightens the world rankings race with Korda heading into the back half of the major season.