Jeeno Thitikul’s second round at the 2026 AIG Women’s Open was a decent round under links conditions. However, it never came close to matching the fluency of her opening 64. She posted a 2-over 73 at Royal Lytham & St. Annes. This dropped her from 7-under to 5-under for the tournament, as she is one shot off the lead heading into the weekend.

“Definitely not better as yesterday. (Laughter.),” Jeeno Thitikul said about her second round at the AIG Women’s Open in the post-round conference. “But, I mean, doing a lot of things kind of not bad, but not really holing the putt as yesterday, but still holed like kind of important putt. But, I mean, I’m not hitting like as close to the pin as yesterday. Maybe the pin position was kind of hard, too.”

The World No. 2 carded seven birdies without a bogey for a 64 in her opening round. The birdies came through holes four to six and then on holes 8, 11,13,and15. This helped her seize a two-shot early lead over Haeran Ryu and Shiho Kuwaki. Her putter was hot, and she even benefited from a lucky bounce over a pot bunker. In the post-round conference, she called it a lucky day when everything was going her way.

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However, things were a little different today. She carded one birdie on the par-three twelfth and three bogeys in the second round. A 15-foot birdie putt lipped out on 18, which underscores the little margin links golf offers when the putter goes cold. Some similar incidents throughout the round frustrated her.

“I definitely going to get frustrated sometime,” she added when asked how she learned to cope with the mental grind on the course. “I mean, like I get really frustrated when I three-putt on 14 and then I end up on like the bunker on 15. I was like so frustrated out there.

“But I feel like if you can let it — let go as fast as possible, should be more advantage for you for the next shot because you know it’s just not ending shots in your life or in the round. You’re not like holing the last putt. I feel like it’s definitely going to be frustrated. I’m not going lie to you. But I think it’s also like it’s really depend on the next shot more than the last shot.”

This isn’t just her Round 2 at the AIG Women’s Open; it has been her story throughout the season. After winning three LPGA titles last year, including the CME Group Tour Championship, she is having a tough stretch this season. While she did win the Honda LPGA Thailand and the Mizuho Americas Open this year, her consistency has taken a hit.

Last year, she played 20 events and made it to the top ten 14 times. This year, though, she has only six top ten finishes in 13 starts so far. However, a positive sign is that her major performances have shown an upward trajectory.

She started the major season with a missed cut at the Chevron Championship. Then, at the US Women’s Open, she carded rounds of 73-69-72-73 to finish tied for 28. She was far better in the third major of the season. With rounds of 69-71-72-70, she scored six-under 282 to tie for eighth place. She then followed it with a T10 at the Amundi Evian Championship, thanks to rounds of 72-64-67-70.

Jeeno Thitikul is continuing that majors momentum at the AIG Women’s Open. With five under after the first two rounds, she is heading into the weekend in strong contention. While a handful of players are yet to finish their rounds, she is currently tied for second on the leaderboard.