When the 2025 season began, everyone in the golf community was anticipating Nelly Korda to have another dominant season on the LPGA Tour. However, the former world #1 has been anything but that. She is yet to win a single title this year. Despite recording good stats for the majority of the season, Korda has failed to deliver, while a rising 22-year-old has capitalised on that.

Jeeno Thitikul, the young sensation, has taken advantage of the situation and overtaken her as the new world #1. After her recent win in China, the Thai pro has extended the gap between herself & Korda even further.

Most recently, Thitikul won the 2025 Buick LPGA Shanghai and bagged a $330,000 paycheck. With that win, she became the first pro this season to win two titles. The phenom had also won the Mizuho Americas Open earlier this year and has now brought a change to her leading world rank.

With her most recent win, she is sitting comfortably at the top of the Rolex Rankings. A golf-centred X (Twitter) account, Nosferatu, recently shed light on this with their tweet.”World No.1 Jeeno Thitikul wins in Shanghai, and she will open a gap of ~ 3.5 points from Nelly Korda at the top of the world rankings… #RolexRankings.”

Before her win, Thitikul was already sitting 2.89 points above Korda in the official women’s golf world rankings. Now, she has created a deficit of 3.5 points against the former world #1. Still in her early twenties, Thitikul is relatively new to the LPGA Tour. Yet, she has won multiple titles every year in 2022, 2024, and now 2025 as well. Apart from that, she also has four runner-up finishes this season. One of these came in France, where she nearly won her first major in the Amundi Evian Championship.

That doesn’t mean Korda hasn’t come close to winning a title this year. She, too, has had two runner-up finishes in 2025. The 27-year-old opened the season with a second-place finish in the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions. She also nearly beat Maja Stark to capture the 2025 U.S. Women’s Open. However, that wasn’t enough for her to keep her spot at the top.

With Jeeno Thitikul pulling ahead, Korda faces the challenge of mounting a strong return. Let’s take a look at some upcoming commitments and how she plans to close the gap.

When will Nelly Korda & Jeeno Thitikul be in action next?

Back in March 2025, Nelly Korda confirmed that she wouldn’t be playing the Asian Swing of the LPGA Tour this season. She had skipped three consecutive events in February & Early March to stick to that. Looks like that commitment extended to the LPGA Tour’s trip to Asia in October & November as well. Korda is not playing either of the events in October or the first week of November that are hosted in Asia. Her next appearance will be The Annika, driven by Gainbridge at Pelican from November 13-16, 2025.

After a season of near misses, optimism is building around Korda’s chances at this event. Hope Barnett recently spoke about her confidence during her conversation with Gary Williams in the latest episode of 5 Clubs, “I honestly do think she will get a win. Everyone should pay attention to The Annika at Pelican because, for some reason, she loves that course.”

Meanwhile, after Thitikul’s win in Shanghai, she is likely to take a short break, following a pattern seen among top players. However, she will return to represent Thailand in the 2025 Hanwha LIFEPLUS International Crown. She will also play the Maybank Championship a week later. She will notably be absent mid-November, unlike Korda at the Pelican

As she has previously stated, the course is not suitable for her style of game. So the next time Thitikul & Korda will lock horns on the fairway would be the 2025 CME Group Tour Championship.