Brandel Chamblee makes claim about Nelly Korda and Jeeno Thitikul which ‘will blow your mind’

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Whoever wins the CME Group Tour Championship on Sunday at Tiburon Golf Club, it is not going to change the fact that Nelly Korda has been the best player on the LPGA throughout 2024.

Nelly Korda has had one of the greatest years of all-time this season. The world number one won six times in seven starts earlier on in the year, clinching her second major title in the process at the Chevron Championship.

And if there was any question over whether recency bias may take the shine off Korda’s season, the 26-year-old responded by producing a stunning back nine in the final round to win The ANNIKA last week for victory number seven.

Korda is going to need all of that fighting spirit to win the CME Group Tour Championship, as she finds herself six shots back of the lead heading into Sunday. Instead, it is Angel Yin and Jeeno Thitikul who are tied for the lead in Naples.

How Jeeno Thitikul has outshone Nelly Korda during the 2024 season

It would certainly be the biggest win of either player’s career. But perhaps there are already signs that Thitikul is destined for great things, with Brandel Chamblee telling Golf Channel that the 21-year-old has managed to outshine Korda in lots of ways this season.

“When it comes to trending, I don’t know how you could do any better than this for Jeeno coming in to this week. If you take a look at her last six events, you go back to second at the Kroger, second the last time she played; obviously she took last week off. So trending in the right direction,” he said.

“Now this will blow your mind, if you looked at statically – I know Nelly’s won seven times this year and Jeeno’s only won one time – but statistically, you would look and say [Thitikul] is the best player on the LPGA Tour. She leads in scoring average, she leads in strokes gained total, nobody hits more greens than her, only Nelly has the exact same par four scoring average, and Jeeno, at 31st in driving distance, leads the par five scoring average, leads birdie average and, of course, you mentioned she won the Aon last week. So she goes from strength to strength.”

Winning the CME Group Tour Championship could be a game-changer for Thitikul

As Chamblee suggests, Thitikul has been in great form recently. She went into the week seventh in the Race To CME Globe standings, having finished outside the top 10 in just one LPGA event all year.

Her performance in the majors was a little more underwhelming, with one top 10 and a missed cut at The Evian Championship. But it really does feel as if the youngster is one huge win away from elevating herself to that superstar level.

While Korda clearly knows what it takes to keep winning – from all kinds of positions on the leaderboard, too – Thitikul seems to be much more consistent, continually putting herself in contention. She has posted just one round where she has shot worse than 72 since the end of July.

So it may well be the Thai sensation many are backing to emerge victorious on Sunday – and then perhaps go on and steal the show in 2025.