WEST CALDWELL — Short Hills native and American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) player, Aphrodite Deng, and No. 2 LPGA golfer Jeeno Thitikul each came into the final round at the Mizuho Americas Open on Mother’s Day, leading their respective fields.
Both were able to hold onto their leads and repeat as champions in the fourth edition of the Mizuho Americas Open in the tournament’s first year at Mountain Ridge Country Club.
Besides the improvement in the weather, the story of the final round for the LPGA field centered around the battle between leader Jeeno Thitikul and No. 8 Ruoning Yin. Yin came into Sunday tied for fourth at 6-under-par, while Thitikul came into Sunday’s action at 10-under-par.
Yin made it interesting by having a terrific front nine: scoring five birdies, including four in a row from the fifth to the eighth hole. This catapulted her to 11-under-par, but Thitikul’s birdie on the third hole kept Yin at bay, putting the leading score at 12-under.
Fast forward to the back nine, and Yin would bogey the 11th and 16th holes. Thitikul then followed her up with a birdie putt on the 16th hole to stretch her lead to three strokes. With just two holes left to play, the No. 2 player in the world just had to make sure she didn’t double-bogey and bogey the last two holes to win her second Mizuho in a row.
Despite valiant efforts from Yin, Alison Lee, Gaby Lopez, Jenny Bae, and Hye-Jin Choi (who all finished tied for third), ‘Jeeno’ took home the trophy on Sunday. She even capped it off by making a long putt on the 18th green, garnering great applause from the gallery.
The 2026 Mizuho was Thitikul’s ninth career LPGA victory and the second time she has defended a title.
Runner-up Ruoning Yin was a good sport and celebrated with Thitikul on the 18th green. Yin talked about her friendship with Thitikul.
“Jeeno is winning a lot more than me right now. I get to celebrate with her and Thailand and this week and CME last year. It’s just, she motivates me a lot, especially where we’re super close and just seeing her do her thing. It’s just super cool, and I hope someday it’s my turn.”
Thitikul described what it was like to have Yin celebrate with her.
“Having her by my side as a best friend and then we like, we are best friend, but on the golf course we trying to beat each other for all, every time. It’s good to have someone like know your situations and then know how things going your way or not, and then what you’re dealing with professional life is really important. Obviously, I knew that I’m going to like play with her for long, long time, and then we going to have a battle out there on the course for a long, long time for sure. And then golf is just golf. Who win, who lose, outside of the golf, we are best friend.”
During the presser, Thitikul reminded us of something her caddie had her do during the week off before the Mizuho Americas Open that she thinks helped her come out on top.
“The funniest thing, after I miss cut [at the] Chevron [Championship], and then we go had like a dinner, then he just like, you have to play with me on the week off before going to Mizuho, because every time that you play with me you hit it good…So I actually played with him like two round last week, and then maybe it’s — he just said, I’m a lucky sign of you. He always said that. Like everyone really want to play a round of golf with me in Thailand, but I want to play with him. He just act like Jeeno want to play with me. Only one person that Jeeno really want to play with. But, I mean, he’s good. I just really appreciate all the things that he done to me.”
Jeeno played the final round alongside AJGA champion Aphrodite Deng, and she described what she saw from the young golfer.
“She looks so young to me. I mean, I wasn’t that old, but she look so young to me, too. She play so good. I really think that we definitely going to have her on Tour in the next, I don’t know, two, three years for sure. She hit it straight. Her putting was really good. Surprising me by the first hole maybe sink it, 30 or 40 foot putt in on the first hole. I was like, wow. That’s maybe like motivate me to play better golf as well today.”
Garden State Trio Reflects on Final Round
At around noon, the skies opened up, and the sun came out at Mountain Ridge Country Club, just in time to see Rayee Feng birdie the 18th hole with a great short iron approach shot and a short putt on this course’s challenging 18th green.
The 18th hole was the third birdie of the final round at the tournament for Feng, who matched her highest single-round score with a 34 today.
The Short Hills native caught up with me after signing her scorecard and started by describing her overall performance.
“I didn’t putt my best, which I think was the main part of my game that was kind of lacking this week. But finished strong, so I’m happy with how I didn’t like get absorbed into how I was messing up and just kept looking ahead.”
Ever the student of the game, Feng described what she learned from playing in a group with LPGA players, Youmin Hwang and Meghan Khang.
“I learned a lot about their shot placement. I actually just kind of realized this. I was just hitting shots, going for as close as I could get to the flag but this was especially evident on one of the par 3s where we were all within the same distance but they had a much easier putt because I had like a downhill, sliding putt and they had like uphill putts and I almost got a bogey on that hole because I couldn’t stop the ball. So, takeaway this week is placing the ball where my next shot would be easier. I didn’t realize that it mattered as much, but that’s a big part of this week.”
Lastly, Feng thanked all the family and friends that came out to West Caldwell this week to support her.
“Yeah, it’s been a lot. I’m really thankful for everyone that has come out and watched me and supported me. I had a lot of family friends come out all four days, and then I had three friends come yesterday, so that was really fun, and then like my whole family’s here today, and my boyfriend’s been here as well, so it really means a lot to have everyone come out and watch me play.”
Meanwhile, Vidhi Lakhawala played mistake-free golf on her first 15 holes before double-bogeying the 7th hole. She then closed with a birdie on the 8th hole and a bogey on the ninth hole to end her final round with a single round high of 36.
The No. 9 AJGA player from Kendall Park described what she did to get herself in the right frame of mind after shooting her lowest score of the tournament in yesterday’s third round.
“After the round I had yesterday, I just went on the range and worked on my swing, just gaining confidence, and you know I just played freely today and didn’t worry about the results.”
Lakhawala’s group included LPGA players Chella Choi and Julia Lopez Ramirez, and the 18-year-old aspiring professional talked about what she learned from playing in a group with them on Sunday.
“They are very consistent players and they don’t make a lot of mistakes and most of the time, if they do make a mistake, they miss on the correct side and it’s an easy up-and-down so it’s just how simply they play the game and how they’re able to capitalize on shots, when they hit a good shot into the green and they’re able to make their putts so just really simple golf they’re able to play.”
Lakhawala also talked about what it meant to have family and friends see her play in-person this week.
“It’s a really proud moment for them to see me compete on the LPGA stage because I’m always traveling and they always just hear about the tournaments, but they never get to watch it in-person. So, it’s really cool for them to see me compete on this stage, and also, they’ve supported me growing up and playing competitive golf. So it’s also a really proud moment for them because they see what I do on the golf course and they’re able to see me do what I aspire to do in the future.”
Short Hills native Aphrodite Deng came into today’s final round in sole possession of the lead. She showed remarkable poise—as did the other junior golfers— playing in front of bigger crowds on the final day of the tournament.
Deng followed up her single-round high of 40 she shot Saturday with a 38 on Sunday, and she described how she overcame the pressure.
“I think just staying in my shot and being patient and not worrying about what the other girls were doing. Just being able to put myself in good spots on the green.”
This year’s Mizuho Americas Open was Deng’s second chance to play in a group with Jeeno Thitikul. She talked about what she took away from this experience.
“Yeah, I really look up to Jeeno. She’s one of my favorite golfers. I just think looking at her swing has helped, because my mom always tells me how good it is. She was really sweet, and it was really fun playing with her.”
The future is very bright for the Garden State trio, and who knows, one day we might see all three on the LPGA tour.
For more scenes from Sunday’s final round, view more of Christopher Shannon’s photos in our photo gallery.
