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Coley Harvey, ESPN Workers Author
LANCASTER, Pa. — As she stood on the 18th inexperienced at Lancaster Nation Membership late Sunday, clutching the Harton S. Semple Trophy for the second time in her younger profession, Yuka Saso paused, seemed down and let the wave of emotion register.
“My household,” she stated tearfully, finally talking after the horde of onlookers gathered across the gap clapped and cheered encouragement, “I would not be right here with out their assist.”
It was becoming then that three years after gifting her mother with a U.S. Girls’s Open win, Saso, 22, may give an analogous current to her father.
“It is only a fantastic feeling that I used to be capable of give again to my mother and father in the identical means,” Saso stated.
In 2021, Saso turned the primary golfer from the Philippines — the nation of her mom’s origin — to win the U.S. Girls’s Open. Months later, whereas holding twin Philippine/Japanese citizenship, she determined to as an alternative solely symbolize her father’s native Japan and has been enjoying beneath that nation’s banner since.
Saso’s win places her in place to compete for Japan on the Olympics later this summer time. She represented the Philippines within the Tokyo Video games in 2021.
Sunday’s victory was additionally the primary Saso has had in any event since her first U.S. Girls’s Open win. The lengthy layoff between trophy displays brought about her to marvel if she ever would end atop an occasion once more.
“I positively had a little bit doubt if I can win once more,” she stated. “It simply makes it particular as a result of after a protracted wait — I wasn’t anticipating to win the U.S. Girls’s Open. Each time, final time, too, I wasn’t anticipating it, and this time, too, I wasn’t anticipating it.
“I believe that is why it made me a bit emotional.”
Saso gained $2.4 million from the $12 million purse, the biggest in ladies’s golf and in ladies’s sports activities at a stand-alone venue.
At 22 years, 347 days, she turned the youngest two-time champion in Open historical past.
This time, her win was the byproduct of a livid cost up the leaderboard on the ultimate day. She entered at 2 below total, 3 pictures off the lead.
By the top of the day, Saso stood alone, carding a 2-under 68 for a 3-shot win. On a day that noticed a lot of the highest of the sector collapse, Saso’s win was all however determined earlier than the ultimate two teams got here off the course.
As she buried a par putt on No. 18 to all however ice the victory, Saso gave a muted, left-armed fist pump, hugged caddie Dylan Vallequette, and casually walked off the course as a number of followers loudly chanted, “Yu! Yu! Yu!”
“I am unsure how the opposite gamers performed. I wasn’t wanting on the scoreboard,” Saso stated. “I wasn’t too relaxed to have the ability to see the scoreboard. I simply tried to be centered on my routine and my recreation.”
With Saso rattling off 4 back-nine birdies — serving to to negate a double bogey on No. 6 — her rivals misplaced their respective grips on the lead.
First, it was Wichanee Meechai. A co-leader coming into Sunday at 5 below, Meechai was flat early, with bogeys on the primary two holes and a double bogey on the par-3 sixth. Meechai’s tee shot on No. 6 approached the pin firmly and at first seemed like a possible birdie alternative. However as an alternative of sticking its touchdown, the ball slipped off one of many course’s notoriously unforgiving greens and fell right into a water hazard alongside the left aspect.
“It is the U.S. Open. The pins have been so exhausting,” Meechai stated. “Generally you possibly can play dangerous golf on at some point, however I am sort of pleased with myself that I can deal with this week fairly good.”
Meechai completed tied for sixth; in three earlier tries on the Open, she had by no means completed higher than thirtieth.
Whereas Meechai was falling out of the lead, her fellow co-leaders coming into the day additionally could not hold tempo. Minjee Lee had a hellacious again 9, sandwiching a pair of bogeys with double bogeys on Nos. 12 and 14. She completed tied for ninth.
American Andrea Lee, 25, had a pair of expensive bogeys on the ultimate two holes to drop to even for the event and right into a tie for third.
“I positively realized so much this week about myself,” stated Lee, who’s from Southern California. “I do belong out right here, and I really feel like I’m adequate to win and be in competition for main championships. I simply have to do higher.”
One other American, Ally Ewing, 31, had Sunday’s finest rating, a 66. After opening the spherical 9 pictures off the lead at 4 over, Ewing completed simply 4 pictures again.
“For any golfer, we wish to peak round main championships,” Ewing stated. “Beginning the week with a 4 over after which simply step by step enjoying the golf course higher and higher, executing extra pictures, it is only a actually good feeling.
“This was the place I made my first skilled U.S. Open begin, so actually good recollections for Lancaster now.”
Info from The Related Press was used on this report.
