Thursday, 12:39 p.m. | Friday, 7:44 a.m.* – Nelly Korda/Jeeno Thitikul/Patty Tavatanakit
Nelly Korda is making her first official title defense of the year this week at the Ford Championship presented by Wild Horse Pass, having won the first playing of this event in 2024 by two strokes over Hira Naveed at Seville Golf and Country Club. This is just her third start of the season, as the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 1 didn’t play in the Tour’s three tournaments in Asia, but she posted two good results in her first two events of the year, finishing solo second at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions and then tying for seventh at the Founders Cup presented by U.S. Virgin Islands, momentum Korda will hope to rediscover this week at Whirlwind Golf Club. Even with her early limited schedule, Korda, who won seven titles throughout the 2024 season, tends to always be a threat to win every time she tees it up, something evidenced by her play since last year’s AIG Women’s Open at St Andrews. According to KPMG Performance Insights, in that span, the Florida native has posted six seventh-place or better results, won her 15th LPGA Tour title, had a scoring average of 68.3 strokes and gained 2.9 shots total on her competitors. And despite not having a lot to go on statistically this early in the season, Korda is still first in strokes gained driving (+1.21), tied for first in strokes gained total (+2.92), sixth in strokes gained putting (+1.41) and tied for 13th strokes gained tee to green (+1.46).
Jeeno Thitikul had earned nine straight top-10 finishes since the 2024 FM Championship before her streak ended with a T12 performance at the Blue Bay LPGA in the People’s Republic of China, and the Thailand native comes to this week’s Ford Championship presented by Wild Horse Pass hoping to post another top-10 result at Whirlwind Golf Club. The 22-year-old has only teed it up in three events so far in 2025, coming solo third at the Honda LPGA Thailand and tying for third at the HSBC Women’s World Championship along with her top-15 showing in early March. This is her first start in the Ford Championship, as Thitikul didn’t compete in last year’s tournament at Seville Golf and Country Club, and her knowledge of playing in these types of conditions on the LPGA Tour is limited to the one start she made at the T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards in 2022 and her T16 performance at the LPGA Drive On Championship at Superstition Mountain Golf and Country Club in 2023. But Thitikul has had success with this style of golf on the Ladies European Tour, winning the PIF Saudi Ladies International earlier this year on that circuit by four strokes over Somi Lee. According to KPMG Performance Insights, Thitikul has the lowest scoring average on Tour since last year’s Mizuho Americas Open (69.1), and she also leads the organization in strokes gained total (+2.62) and strokes gained putting (+1.43) in that span. And in just her first three events this season, the young talent is third in strokes gained total (+2.85), sixth in strokes gained approach (+1.35) and 10th in strokes gained tee to green (+1.60), metrics that should point to her having even more early-season success this week at the Ford Championship.
Patty Tavatanakit has gotten off to a steady start so far this season on the LPGA Tour, tying for 20th in her first tournament of the year at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions and then tying for fourth in her title defense at the Honda LPGA Thailand, consistency she will be working to keep rolling at Whirlwind Golf Club. Like her groupmate Thitikul, the Thailand native didn’t play the Ford Championship in 2024, but she was at Superstition Mountain in 2023 and finished in a tie for 39th that year at the LPGA Drive On Championship. Tavatanakit has a tie for fifth at the 2021 T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards on her resume when it comes to her other LPGA Tour showings in the desert, and again like Thitikul, she won the 2024 edition of the PIF Saudi Ladies International on the LET, what was her first worldwide victory since she captured her first major title at the 2021 Chevron Championship at Mission Hills Country Club, located in Rancho Mirage, Calif. Statistically, Tavatanakit is currently leading the Tour in strokes gained around the green (+0.91) and is also ranked 11th in both strokes gained tee to green (+1.59) and strokes gained off the tee (+0.67), according to KPMG Performance Insights. She is also seventh in birdie or better percentage (27.08%), seventh in birdie or better average per round (4.88) and 10th in greens hit from the fairway (86.75%).
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