Ataya Titikul didn’t win a tournament this season, but that doesn’t mean she’ll leave Naples, Fla., without a trophy.
“I don’t have a trophy, but I do have the Vale Trophy,” Titikul said with a laugh after winning the LPGA’s top scorer title.
Titikul, a 20-year-old from Thailand who boasts two LPGA wins and was ranked No. 1 in the world about a year ago, averaged 69.533 points over 75 rounds. She defeated Kim Hyo Joo (69.628 in 78 rounds) by less than 0.1 stroke.
Titikul became the first player in the award’s 70-year history to win the scoring title without winning a tournament. She is also the second Thai to lift Vale, following Ariya Jutanugarn in 2018.
“It means a lot that we’re heading in the right direction,” Titicle added.
Titikul finished fifth at the CME Group Tour Championship on Sunday, six strokes ahead of T-13 Kim with 13 strokes.th Season top 10 finish. Although it was a strong season by most standards, Titicle talked about how a brief summer slump (two MCs in a major and a WD after scoring an opening 79 in the Women’s Scots) took a toll on her. I couldn’t help it.
“You know? To be honest, I never expected to win the Vale Trophy,” she said. “In the middle of the season, I played really bad. I mean, I missed two major events, and then I didn’t play very well in the middle of the year. So I think it’s really mean.[ingful] For me when I recovered from something I really liked [being] If you don’t have confidence in yourself at that time, you will feel anxious.
“I’m really happy that I was able to get through it, get through it, get through it.”