MANILA – Filipina-Japanese golfer Yuka Saso’s impressive showing on Sunday made her the first-ever Filipina to bag the 2021 US Women’s Open Championship crown at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, California.
Saso was the first-ever Filipino to win a major championship in US Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) after a birdie putt in the ninth hole in her sudden-death playoff with Japanese Nasa Hataoka.
Hataoka had a better tee shot when she went to the fairway, while Saso settled for the rough.
However, Saso managed to dig herself out to pull off the come-from-behind win.
The sudden-death playoff between the two golfers took stage after Saso and Hataoka ended the four-round competition with an identical four-under-par.
“First, I would like to thank my family. I wouldn’t be here without them,” said the 19-year-old Saso, who matched South Korean Park In-bee as the youngest winners in the championship’s history.
“To my sponsor who helped me, I’m very thankful. To all my friends and fans back in the Philippines and in Japan, I’m really thankful. I hope I could do better and keep this up,” she added.
Saso entered the match with a second-place standing behind American Lexi Thompson and badly needed to bounce back from two early double bogeys and recovered in the back nine.
She even fell behind the leader by six shots at one point but won it all in the eighteenth playoff hole after Hataoka settled for a par putt.
A gold medal winner for the Philippines in 2018, Saso faltered on the opportunity after she putted downhill, forcing a playoff-extending putt with Hataoka.
With the championship, the Filipina-Japanese golfer pocketed $5,500,000 (P262,092,050) while moving herself closer to securing a seat in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in August./PN
