Miami (AFP) – World number one Jeeno Thitikul will kick off her 2026 LPGA season at the Tournament of Champions this week aiming to build on a three-win 2025 campaign and hoping a wrist injury is behind her. The Thai star capped last year with a second straight victory in the LPGA Tour Championship, teeing it up despite a sore wrist that she had feared would scupper her title defense.
She said she arrives at Lake Nona in Orlando, Florida, after a quiet off-season focused on getting healthy. “I haven’t hit the ball, like practicing, until new year because I was protecting my wrist,” said Jeeno, who also won the Mizuho Americas Open and a tournament in Shanghai last year, winning Player of the Year honors as well as the Vare Trophy for the lowest scoring average of the season.
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“I feel like I didn’t have enough practice coming here, but for a couple days out here, Monday until now, I think my irons haven’t come with me yet — so I do have things to figure out.” While her game might be rusty, Jeeno said her wrist was “100 percent.” “I don’t feel once I hit the ball at all,” she said. “It feels kind of tight sometimes because it’s cold.”
Jeeno is playing the season-opening event, open to tournament winners from the previous two seasons, for the first time. She’s been eligible before but hadn’t managed to fit it into her schedule. “It’s kind of tough for me to come overseas from Thailand to here, just especially one week,” she said, but added that she wanted to support the pro-am event in which a celebrity-stacked amateur field plays alongside the LPGA stars.
Defending champion Kim A-lim of South Korea is also in the field, along with 2024 champion Lydia Ko of New Zealand. World number two Nelly Korda will also be present as she launches a 2026 campaign in which she’ll be hoping to return to the winner’s circle. After a blockbuster seven-win 2024 campaign, the US star finished 2025 without a victory.
© 2024 AFP
