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Nelly Korda’s dominant run as the No. 1 golfer in the world came to an end on Monday with the official release of the Rolex Women’s Ranking as Thailand’s Jeeno Thitikul moved into the top spot for the second time in her career.
Korda was projected to fall on Sunday after finishing tied for 36th in the AIG Women’s Open at Royal Porthcawl in Wales. She had an incredible run at the top—71 consecutive weeks—in her second stint as World No. 1.
Going into the final major of 2025, Korda had a slim lead over Thitikul at 0.1861. It was her smallest margin over a No. 2-ranked golfer since she became No. 1 in March 2024. Korda’s largest lead at the top was the week of May 20, 2024, when she had a 6.8022 advantage over Lilia Vu after winning her sixth title of the year the previous week.
Korda shot a three-over 75 Sunday, her worst round of the AIG Women’s Open, and Thitikul shot two-over 74, also her worst round of the week, but tied for 30th place, six spots ahead of Korda.
Thitikul, 22, takes over the No. 1 spot fueled by another strong, typically solid season. The five-time LPGA winner added her latest victory in May’s Mizuho Americas Open. She has eight top-10s this season, including a playoff runner-up at the Amundi Evian Championship three weeks ago in France. She takes over the No. 1 ranking again (she held it for consecutive weeks from Oct. 31-Nov. 13 in 2022) after she finished 12 shots behind Women’s British Open champion Miyu Yamashita.
Korda—who made the cut in all five majors this year and has five top-10 finishes—became the top golfer in the world for the first time in June 2021 and has held the top ranking for 108 weeks of her career. She lost I but regained it in March of last year then went on a historic run of winning five consecutive tournaments and seven overall last year. This year, she has yet to win a tournament but has made a career-best 13 cuts in all 13 events she’s played.
It’s a distinction that has accompanied her name through nearly a year and a half, and one she had during that historic run last year.
There are plenty of opportunities over the next five months for Korda to win her first event of the year and regain the top spot. There are 21 different winners on tour this year in 20 events, the most to start a season in the 75-year history of the LPGA.
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