U.S. Women's Open Champion Yuka Saso Refreshed and Recharged for ShopRite LPGA Classic

By Joe Juliano

 

GALLOWAY, N.J. - After a gritty and gutty march to the championship of the U.S. Women’s Open last weekend at Lancaster Country Club, Yuka Saso made the drive to the Jersey Shore and the ShopRite LPGA Classic refreshed and ready to tee it up once again.

 

Amid the pressure of a national championship, Saso, 22, played a brilliant final round last Sunday to win the Women’s Open for the second time in four years. A run of four birdies in five holes on her back nine led to a 2-under-par 68 and a 3-stroke victory.

 

Saso managed to grab a day of rest on Monday since the ShopRite event at Seaview’s Bay Course is a 54-hole competition that begins Friday. Of course, she could have spent that idle day perhaps celebrating with friends, but she preferred to focus on the tournament coming up.

 

“I was nervous last week; I get nervous every tournament,” Saso said Thursday at her media availability. “I don’t think I would feel more nervous just because it was a major or it’s after a win. Emotion-wise, I don’t think anything will change. I am just here to enjoy, especially since I missed the tournament last year. I don’t think I’ll feel any pressure.”

 

Saso withdrew from last year’s ShopRite LPGA Classic because of the flu. Her only other appearance at Seaview came in October 2021, about four months after her first U.S. Women’s Open win at Olympic Club in San Francisco, when she tied for 19^th.

 

After battling the rolling terrain in Lancaster, a layout that played at more than 6,500 yards, Saso finds herself close to the Jersey Shore on a mostly flat course that measures nearly 6,200 yards. The Women’s U.S. Open champion knows, however, that Seaview will not be a pushover.

 

“It’s not as long as last week, but it has its own way of making the golf challenging, especially the greens,” she said. “It’s poa (annua) and it's very bumpy. When the wind blows I think that's where all the complications starts. I don't know how to compare the two golf courses because it's very different. Here it's pretty flat and Lancaster has a lot of slopes on the greens and fairways.

 

“I don't think I can compare the two golf courses. Both of them are really good and have different types of challenges. So I don't think I'll think too much about last week and trying to put that in play this week. I’ll just put the experiences that I had before playing in this event; hopefully I can put that into play this week.”

 

Saso’s two Women’s Open championships, which came three years apart, are her only two LPGA victories. She pocketed a first-prize check of $2.4 million last weekend, a new standard for women’s golf, and increased her career earnings to more than $6.7 million. But she knows how difficult it is to win on the LPGA Tour and she keeps working at being her best.

 

“Winning a tournament is a really difficult thing here in the LPGA, and to be able to do that I think after three years, it felt really good,” she said. “I think the confidence comes from the practice. Obviously winning a big tournament helps a little bit, but most of it comes from the practice. So I think I'll just focus on the process I've been doing and hopefully I can give myself a little bit more confidence coming into the upcoming tournaments.

 

“For me, I don't think I've changed since 2021. Only thing that changed is I got older. I have more experience now on the LPGA. That's pretty much it. Other than that, I don't know if I changed a lot as a person.”

 

The unique part of Saso’s two U.S. Women’s Open wins is that each came under a different flag. Born in the Philippines to a Filipino mother and a Japanese father, she became the first Filipino to win a major championship in 2021, and the first Japanese player to capture a major win this year. She said the victories were a way to give back to each of her parents. She now has Japanese citizenship.

 

“Even when I was representing Philippines, I always thought I’m half-Japanese,” she said. “Even now I’m representing Japan, I always think I’m half Filipino. That will never change. I loved growing up in Philippines and I always go back there.”

 

Following the ShopRite LPGA Classic, Saso will compete in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Sahalee in Washington State hoping that she can give herself a chance to play for Team Japan in the Paris Olympics. She is currently No. 6 in the Women’s World Golf Rankings.

 

Under the rules of the International Golf Federation, the top 15 ranked players will be eligible for the Olympics with a limit of four players from a given country. After that, players will be eligible based on their ranking, with a maximum of two eligible players from each country that does not already have two or more players among the top-15. The field is limited to the top 60.

 

Saso is thinking about it but she remains focused on this week.

 

“I haven’t checked the rankings,” she said. “I don’t know my standings right now. I’m hoping that I can give myself a chance to get to Paris.”