Jutanugarn wants to improve

NAPLES, Fla. — Ariya Jutanugarn is occasionally fearful on the golf course, which might seem peculiar given her résumé.

She’s already clinched the LPGA’s player of the year award, her second in the last three seasons. She’s already clinched the money title, also for the second time in three years. She’s back to No. 1 in the world rankings, will almost certainly have the lowest scoring average on tour this year and finished in the top 10 more regularly than any of her fellow competitors.

If all that wasn’t enough, she has the best chance this week at the season-ending tour championship that starts Thursday at Tiburon Golf Club of capturing the Race to the CME Globe — which comes with a $1 million bonus and features 17 of the top 20 in the women’s world ranking.

So still playing scared at times, that’s a puzzler. “I just want to improve myself every day,” Jutanugarn said. “I know I have so much room (to) improve.”

EUROPEAN TOUR: Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood are the only two players who can win the Race to Dubai in the final event of the European Tour season, the DP World Tour Championshp teeing off today in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

PGA TOUR: Webb Simpson at No. 20 is the highest-ranked player in the field of the RSM Classic in St. Simons Island, Ga., which tees off today. It is the final PGA Tour event of the calendar year before resuming in January in Kapalua.