Short Game Tips to Improve Your Game, Inspired by Jeeno Thitikul

Through two rounds at the KPMG Women's PGA Championship, one player has separated herself from the field . . . not with overpowering drives or spectacular iron shots but with something far more fundamental —and far more teachable.

Jeeno Thitikul sits atop the leaderboard, and if you've been watching closely, you'll notice it's her putting and scrambling that have been the bedrock of her performance. Thitikul is 3rd in the field in scrambling, getting up and down at a 73% rate, and she sits 2nd in putts per round at 27 on average.

What Thitikul is demonstrating this week at Fields Ranch East is something I've been preaching to my students for decades: championships aren't won with your driver—they're won on and around the green. Thitikul's putting stroke has been absolutely rock-solid through 36 holes, and her ability to get up and down when she's missed greens has kept bogeys off her card when lesser players would be dropping shots.

But here's the thing that gets me excited about what she's doing: every element of her short-game success is completely learnable and transferable to your game, regardless of your handicap.

1. Commit to conservative target selection. Thitikul isn't trying to hole every chip shot—she's trying to give herself the easiest possible putt. I've seen too many weekend golfers get greedy around the greens and end up three-putting or worse. Pick your spot, commit to it, and trust that getting close is good enough.

2. Develop distance control before direction control. Her putting stroke prioritizes speed over line, and this is crucial. Throughout my years of coaching, I've noticed that players who focus on distance first tend to become better putters faster. You can read greens all day, but if your speed is off, nothing else matters.

3. Practice your misses. What impresses me most about Thitikul's scrambling is how prepared she looks for every situation. She's clearly spent time practicing from all the awkward lies and difficult angles that golf courses throw at you. Most amateurs only practice perfect lies—the players who improve practice the ugly ones too.

4. Build a pre-shot routine for pressure situations. Thitikul's routine around the greens never changes, whether it's a routine chip or a crucial up-and-down to save par. Developing this kind of consistency under pressure is what separates players who fold from players who thrive when it matters most.

Here's a drill I developed after studying players like Thitikul—I call it the "100-Yard Circle of Trust," and it's designed to build the kind of short-game confidence:

Step 1: Set up around a practice green with five different lies at varying distances—one bunker shot (20 yards), one rough chip (15 yards), one fairway chip (25 yards), one long putt (40 feet), and one short putt (8 feet).

Step 2: Start with the bunker shot. Your goal is to get the ball within a 6-foot circle around the hole. If you succeed, move to the rough chip. If you miss the 6-foot circle, stay at the bunker until you succeed.

Step 3: Continue the sequence through all five stations. Each shot must land within the 6-foot circle before you can advance. If you miss at any station, go back to the beginning.

Step 4: Once you complete the full sequence three times, add this pressure element: you must hole out every shot that lands within 3 feet of the cup. This simulates the clutch putts that players like Thitikul face every round.

Step 5: The final challenge—complete the entire sequence in under 10 minutes, using the same pre-shot routine for each shot (assess lie, pick a target, one practice swing, execute).

This drill builds three things simultaneously: touch around the greens, putting confidence, and the ability to perform under time pressure — exactly what Thitikul is demonstrating this week.

As Thitikul heads into the weekend with the lead at the KPMG Women's PGA Championship,the beautiful thing about what she's doing is that every weekend golfer can apply these same principles to their own game.

Whether you're trying to win your club championship or just break 90 for the first time, the lesson is the same: master the short game, and you'll master golf. Thitikul is proving that this weekend, one clutch putt and one perfectly executed chip shot at a time.