CME Group Tour Championship: Jeeno Thitikul six shots clear after round three

World number one Jeeno Thitikul set a tournament-record 54 holes at the CME Group Tour Championship as she extended her lead to six shots.

Thailand’s Thitikul shot an eight-under-par 64 in her third round to go 22 under par overall.

“It was very good,” said 22-year-old Thitikul, who won the title last year when he was under 22.

“I was just trying to focus on myself and try to make birdies and birdies and birdies because I know there is a group of guys out there that are going to be able to make more birdies.”

Thitikul’s compatriot Pajari Ananarukarn and world number two Nelly Korda shot 65 on Saturday and share second place.

Thitikul, who led by three strokes at the halfway point, bogeyed her first hole on Saturday.

But then she birdied the second, fourth, fifth and sixth holes, and trailed the back nine with four consecutive birdies from the 11th through the 15th — and another on the 17th.

A win would make Thitikul the second woman – after South Korea’s Ko Jin-young in 2020 and 2021 – to win the tournament in consecutive years.

She will also receive prize money of $4 million (£3.1 million) out of a total prize pool of $11 million (£8.4 million).