Why Jeeno Thitikul skipped last week’s Annika, and why that disqualified her from Vare Trophy race

For the third time in five years, the player with the lowest scoring average on the LPGA won’t receive the Vare Trophy.

Entering the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship, Jeeno Thitikul, last season’s Vare Trophy winner, leads the tour with a 69.54 scoring average this year. She’s followed by Nelly Korda, who sits at 69.66. However, both Thitikul and Korda, who each battled injuries this season, will not satisfy the award’s minimum-rounds requirement – Thitikul has logged 62 total rounds, though since she played the Olympics, she’s eight rounds short; Korda, also an Olympian this year, is at 60 rounds, 10 shy of what she needs.

The top Vare contenders this week in Naples, Florida, are Hae Ran Ryu (69.98) and Ayaka Furue (70.05).

In Thitikul’s mind, though, she’s still the Vare winner for a second straight year.

“I just keep it on my stats that it’s two years in a row that I have [the lowest] scoring average, even if I’m going to lift the trophy or not,” Thitikul said Tuesday. “But it’s a really good number and really good stat on my team.”

Plus, Thitikul won another season-long race, the Aon Risk-Reward Challenge, which comes with a $1 million paycheck. Thitikul, who has earned just over $2 million in on-course earnings this year, leads the LPGA with an average to par of -0.9 on this season’s challenge holes, and she cannot be caught by second-place Ruoning Yin.

Thitikul skipped last week’s The Annika driven by Gainbridge, a move that likely kept her from satisfying the Vare’s minimum-rounds rule, though she didn’t specifically say the Aon race contributed to her decision.

“Last week, one of the reasons, it’s going to be I’m not really suited [for] that golf course as well because I played that last year, [it] was my first time playing that course, and I’m not really good,” explained Thitikul, who tied for 31st at the 2023 Annika event. “That’s another reason why, that I don’t play last week.”

Thitikul’s million-dollar payday is her largest as a pro, though she could top that this Sunday. At No. 7 in CME points, Thitikul also easily advanced to this week’s season finale at Tiburon Golf Club, where the winner will take home $4 million.

“A lot of people have asked me what are you going to spend for like a million dollars,” said Thitikul, who has answered those questions with, “I’m going to Disneyland next week.”

An extra $4 million and she’ll be able to extend her vacation.