She's the favourite for the U.S Women's Open. She's number two in the world. She may be the best player you've never heard of.
Who am I?
As a 14-year-old amateur I won the national championship of my country. In my rookie season as a professional, I won three times on the U.S tour. By October of that year, at the age of 19, I became the second-youngest world number-one of all time. I have since won 18 tournaments around the world and earned $10 million in prize money. And I may be the greatest player you have never heard of.
But if you’re now shouting at the page, You are Jeeno Thitikul, who at the age of 22, despite not having won a major championship, is ranked behind Nelly Korda as the second-best player in the world, then you are, of course, correct.
That’s right. Jeeno Thitkul. Say her name. She’s so nice to western commentary teams she changed it from Atthaya to the nickname her mum and coach gave her. Worked for Eldrick Tont “Tiger” Woods, right? It’s also safe to say that were Jeeno a man, she would be “The Next Tiger”.
Because, if the digital vox pop conducted by the Senior Writer of Golf Australia magazine among his greater menagerie of sports-consuming pals is anything to go by, Jeeno fans may be thin on the ground, at least in this country, and even among those of us who spend so many hours on the couch consuming golf as we might a luxuriant cabernet with a slow-cooked lamb ragu.
Yet we’re not all ignoramuses. One pal of mine said of Thitikul: “She has different-coloured grips so her dad watching in Thailand knows what club she’s hitting.” Another added: “I like her name, ‘Jeeno’ – it’s Aussie, it makes me think of Gene Miles [the former Brisbane Broncos centre]. And she’s always up there in tournies. She’s cool to watch.”
Women’s golf is cool to watch, particularly live. For those of us whose golf game means swinging driver as hard as we can off every tee, elite women’s golf is far more instructive than watching Bryson DeChambeau wind up like angry Buzz Lightyear in Long Drive Las Vegas.
Yet, fact is, women’s golf rates poorly on television. Golf Australia lost millions putting on a standalone women’s Australian Open. If this magazine, with 90 percent male readership, puts a lady on the cover, it will be the lowest-selling magazine of the year, and by some margin. Doesn’t matter if it’s Minjee Lee defending the U.S Open or Karrie Webb in Tiger-esque pomp.
Of course, it should not be, and we should enjoy women’s golf as we do elite tennis, as Americans do college football; as a nuanced, separate, slightly different spectacle than the men’s game, with different aspects to enjoy and draw from. Instead, too many of us don’t rate women’s golf because we think it’s lesser – “reserve grade,” as one pal put it – because men hit the ball further away.
And, of course, we must stop it at once. But we are who we are, as the scorpion said to the bullfrog, and you can’t put heads on statues, and so on.
So, should our greater golf and sports media industries desire for so many ding-a-lings to rise just before Australian sunrise hours of May 30 through to June 2 and consume and appreciate the U.S Women’s Open at Erin Hills, Wisconsin, we need an added bonus, a fringe benefit, a dollop of whipped cream and passionfruit on mum’s Christmas pavlova.
We need to bet on it.
Yet punting, especially when you realise that over time there is something like 0.6 percent chance of winning, should not be just hard-eyed accountancy. You want to carry something organic; some part of your heart with your head.
So, the following tips aren’t weighted solely in technical, chances-of-winning-the-tournament terms, but rather also why you might like to support these people as people, given they don’t hold the Australian nationality that the great Karen Harding will be using to tug at head-and-heart-strings in tomorrow’s preview of the Aussie chances at Erin Hills.
Our top selection is, of course, the mercurial Ms Thitikul about whom we’ve already waxed lyrically and about whom, after she just won the Mizuho Americas Open, bookmakers will offer 9-1 about her chances.
The next "obvious" one is the mighty Nelly Korda of Florida. At the start of 2024 she won five tournaments on the trot, including the Chevron Championship, a major. After winning six times in 2024, for all the world she was golf’s Next Massively Big Thing.
Following the Chevron, Korda’s major results read: MC, MC, T26, T2. She won The Annika in November before last month’s defence of the first major (of five) in 2025, The Chevron Championship at The Club at Carlton Woods (which is in Texas and not out back of the Duke of Gloucester’s place in Hampshire, as the handle might attest).
After shooting 77 on the Thursday and being seven-over with 16 holes to play on Friday, Korda looked certain to miss the cut. But she blazed her way to a brilliant 68, made the weekend on the number, and ended up T14. Some fine and fresh muscle memory to draw on there.
And you can find 14-1 for the best player in the world.
Relatively interesting things about Nelly Korda include: her favourite ice cream is rum-and-raisin, her favourite music is country music, and her favourite ice hockey team is the LA Kings though her boyfriend, Andreas Athanasiou, is a centre with the Rockford IceHogs of the American Hockey League.
The next “obvious” tip, is the great Lydia Ko, who at the age of 17 became the youngest ever world number one. Ko has won three majors and, clearly, even if she’s intimated that at the age of 28 her time is nearly up, wants more.
In 14 tournaments since June of last year, Ko has been top-15 ten times, and hasn’t missed a cut. She won the Women’s Open Championship at St Andrews, the Kroger Queen City Championship and the HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore. Oh yes – she also won a gold medal in the 2024 Paris Olympics, and had its memory tattooed upon her to complement the silver and bronze iterations she won in Rio (2016) and Tokyo (2020).
And for all this, and because she is very good sport indeed, the fine country of New Zealand granted upon her a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to golf, the youngest dame or knight of recent times, and joining fellow Kiwi champion Bob Charles to be thus honoured.
And you might find 22-1 about her.
After two rounds of the Chevron Championship, world number four Lilia Vu was seven shots off the lead and ready to pounce. But moving day turned into a shocker, and back-to-back 78s added up to 13-over and a tie for nowhere very good. And yet, one would suggest, given, you know, she is world number four, that Vu is better than that. She certainly has been.
Her four wins in 2023 included two majors – The Chevron Championship and Women’s British Open. She was player of the year and world number one. In 2024 she tied for second (behind Amy Yang) in the Women’s PGA Championship. And, in her first start following a back injury, she won the Meijer LPGA Classic in a play-off with Grace Kim and Lexi Thompson. In March of this year, she ran second in the Arizona Championship after a play-off with Hyo-joo Kim.
Her approximate odds? A delectable 25-1.
And why might we empathise with and like this golf-playing prodigy? Consider that in 1975 her grandfather, Dinh Du of the Mekong Delta, began building a boat designed to carry 54 souls, including Vu’s mum, Yvonne, away from Vietnam. Seven years later the vessel set off carrying 82 of their fellow citizens who longed to escape their poor, war-ravaged nation.
Dinh Du did his best in high seas until the party was rescued by the U.S Navy and the family fetched up in California. Baby Lilia was born, raised, went to college, studied political science and played world-class amateur golf.
In 2019 she turned professional, amassed $U3,830 from nine events with eight missed cuts, and considered quitting professional golf to go to law school. On grandad’s advice, though, she did not, and there followed a great deal of winning.
Which is not what you’ll be doing, over time, should you bet upon these, or other favourites including Hae Ran Ryu ($14), Ruoning Yin ($18), Jin Young Ko ($20), Minjee Lee ($22) or Rio Takeda ($22). Becuse if there is one certainty about being “on the punt”, it is that “you will lose”.
If you’re good with that, knock yourself out with an old-fashioned flutter.
Not so much? Sit back and sup on a luxuriant beverage and enjoy the play of these world-class golfers and the storylines they create in this 80th U.S Women’s Open at Erin Hills, Wisconsin.
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