NAPLES, Fla. — Gino Titikul birdied every hole Friday in a performance befitting the No. 1 player in women’s golf, posting a 9-under 63 to take a three-shot lead at the CME Group Tour Championship and move the Thai star closer to another $4 million in prize money and the LPGA Player of the Year title.
Nelly Korda, who replaced Titicle at the top of the world rankings earlier this year, made enough putts for a 64 that put him at the top of the leaderboard around the time Titicle started.
She had a five-stroke lead, increasing her chances of at least winning for the first time this year.
Titicle made it difficult for everyone, making four birdies in a row near the turn and six birdies in eight holes. She played alongside Kim Sei-young, but Kim did her best to keep pace, scoring a 66 with six birdies on the back nine at Tiburon Golf Club.
Defending champion Titikle shot 14-under 130.
“It’s definitely better than yesterday,” Titicle said with a smile. “Still, I had no complaints with nine birdies and no bogeys. So I’ll take it.”
Somi Lee started the final round of the LPGA season with a 64, bogeyed on the par-5 first hole, and didn’t really get going. She made two birdies in the last five holes and shot a 70, leaving her tied with Nasa Hataoka (67) with a four-stroke lead over the Koreans.
But this was Titicle’s show, and all Kim could do was keep up, playing alongside her on another warm day with receptive grass on the greens that allows for such good scores.
“Nine holes, Gino is five strokes (lead),” Kim said. “I try to get a lot of birdies, especially on the back nine. Yeah, I fired up on the back nine. I mean, she’s great. She turned every hole into a birdie opportunity. She’s a great player. I made birdies, she made birdies.”
They birdied all but two of the last 11 holes they played.
Titicle leads the points-based award for LPGA Player of the Year. The only player who can catch her is Japan’s British Women’s Open champion Miyu Yamashita, who shot a 69 and entered the weekend with a nine-shot lead.
Titicle and Yamashita are the only players with multiple wins this year.
After a season in which he won seven titles in 2024, Korda is surprisingly still winless this year and has also gotten off to a slow start in the Tour Championship. But she made a number of birdie putts in the 10- to 15-foot range in the second round, making her an early target.
What caused her putting to improve?
“Honestly, I went to the putting green for five minutes yesterday and I actually saw some balls roll into the hole, which was good, and then I left,” Korda said.
She also played a low round to regain the position at Anika last Friday, but fell back over the weekend. This time, she has a five-shot lead over the player who deserves the title of best in women’s golf.
Titicle began his birdie streak with two 10-foot shots on the eighth and ninth holes. She then hit a wedge to just short of the cup on the 10th, and on the 11th, Tiburon’s most difficult hole, she hit a 5-foot approach to the back-right pin over a bunker.
The only time she missed the green was on the 18th, because her approach rolled just outside the green and she still missed a birdie putt from about 18 feet.
With 36 holes remaining, seven players were within five shots of Titicle, a group that included Brooke Henderson and Minjee Lee. The winner will receive $4 million, the largest prize in women’s golf.
Titicle shot 22 under last year, but still only won by one stroke. The previous year, Amy Yang won with a 27-under 261, setting a new tournament record. So she realized she needed to keep Birdie.
“As I always say, all the winners here, the scores are like 20+, which is a really low score,” Titicle said. “We just need to make more and more.”
