Japan’s Yuka Saso got here from three pictures behind on Sunday to grow to be the youngest participant to win two US Girls’s Open titles.
There had been a three-way tie heading into what grew to become a dramatic closing day at Lancaster Nation Membership in Pennsylvania, with Australia’s Minjee Lee, American Andrea Lee and Thailand’s Wichanee Meechai degree on the high of the leaderboard.
However Saso, 22, produced a run of 4 birdies in 5 holes on the again 9 to grab victory by three strokes.
Her two-under-par 68 noticed her triumph on 4 underneath, with compatriot Hinako Shibuno ending second.
SECOND US OPEN TITLE
That gave Saso, who switched her worldwide allegiance from the Philippines in 2022, her second LPGA Tour title – each coming on the US Girls’s Open. Saso grew to become the primary Filipino participant to win a serious when she clinched her first US Girls’s Open title as a teen in 2021.
“Successful in 2021, I represented the Philippines [and] I really feel like I used to be capable of give again to my mother,” Saso stated at her trophy presentation. “This yr, I used to be capable of symbolize Japan, and I feel I used to be capable of give again to my dad. I’m very pleased that I used to be capable of do it.”
Saso suffered an early blow on Sunday when she adopted a birdie on the second by four-putting the sixth for a double bogey. However after steadying the ship she stormed clear as solely two gamers within the subject to complete underneath par, with Minjee Lee coming residence in 41 for an eight-over 78, whereas Meechai struggled to a closing 77.
Andrea Lee posted a 75 to share third place with fellow American Ally Ewing, who surged by way of the sphere with a closing 66.
Charley Hull completed the best of the English contingent, tying for nineteenth on +6 after combating again with a closing 67, whereas Jodi Ewart Shadoff was tied for twenty ninth on +9.
TOUGH SCORING CONDITIONS
The Lancaster course proved a very powerful problem for the world’s finest girls’s gamers this week, with a mixture of slender fairways, lengthy tough and huge, quick greens leading to some unusually excessive scores.
The minimize got here at +8 on Friday, with a bunch of big-name gamers falling on the flawed aspect of the mark, together with world no.1 Nelly Korda (+10) and world No.6 Rose Zhang (+11), who fired opening rounds of 80 and 79 respectively and missed the minimize together with Brooke Henderson (+12), Lydia Ko (+13), Georgia Corridor (+11), Leona Maguire (+10) and Maja Stark (+13). Lexi Thompson, who introduced her retirement from skilled golf in the beginning of the week, additionally made an early exit after capturing rounds of 78 and 75.
Korda’s undoing got here as early as her third gap on Thursday when she racked up a septuple-bogey 10 after discovering the water thrice on the par-3 twelfth gap throughout her first spherical.
Yuka Saso’s profitable gear
Driver: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond (9°)
Fairway wooden: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max (15°)
Hybrid: Callaway Apex UW (19°)
Irons: Callaway Apex CB (4-5), Callaway Apex MB (6-9)
Wedges: Callaway Jaws Cast Uncooked (46°, 48°) Callaway Jaws Uncooked (52°, 56°, 60°)
Putter: Odyssey Ai-One Milled Three T
Ball: Callaway Chrome Tour X
