Meet Yuka Saso, the First Major Golf Tournament Champion from the Philippines

Her win is one for the books

With her win in the 2021 US Women’s Open golf championship. Saso became the first Filipino to win a major gold championship for golf.

One of the major golf championships in the world, the US Women’s Open is one of only nine national golf championships held by the United States Golf Association (USGA). It is also the oldest major championship in the LGPA Tour.

Saso is also only the second Filipino to win an LPGA Tour event, after Jennifer Rosales, the winner of the 2004 Chick-fil-A Charity Championship in 2004 and the 2005 SBS Open at Turtle Bay.

“I’m just thankful that there’s so many people in the Philippines cheering for me,” Saso said in an interview right after the playoffs. “I don’t know how to thank them. They gave me so much energy. I want to say thank you to everyone.”

She’s the youngest champion in the US Women’s Open

Or at least one of two. At 19 years, 11 months and 17 days, Saso matched South Korea’s Park Inbee, who first won the US Women’s Open in 2008. An amazing coincidence that they were the same age when they won.

“I get LPGA?”

“Are you kidding me?”

Yuka Saso has accepted LPGA Tour membership 🙌 pic.twitter.com/BfIkf3qYAy

— LPGA (@LPGA) June 7, 2021

With her win, she became eligible for a membership with the LPGA, but the champion wasn’t initially sure yet if she would officially join full-time. “I’m going to talk to my dad, my family about it, and we are going to decide after,” Saso said. A few hours after the interview, it was reported that she did accept the membership after discussing with her family.

She just received a junior championship

In 2019, Yuka Saso won the @JuniorPGAChamp. Today, she became a major champion at the US Women’s Open. pic.twitter.com/PFMXdsRxax

— PGA of America (@PGA) June 7, 2021

In 2019, when Saso was only 17 years old, she was only competing at the Junior PGA Championship, where she also bagged the trophy. Now, just a quick two years later, she actually won in one of the biggest events in golf.

This isn’t her first gold for the Philippines

At the 2018 Asian Games, Saso won a gold for the women’s individual golf tournament. She also won a second gold medal with fellow players Bianca Pagdanganan, and Lois Kaye Go in the women’s team event.

Following these wins, the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) named her the Athlete of the Year in 2018 alongside fellow golfers Bianca Pagdanganan and Lois Kaye Go, and weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz, then again in 2020 for her wins in the Japan LPGA.

And this is already her third professional win

She only started playing professionally in late 2019, but she has already won in three professional events: the 2021 US Women’s Open, the 2020 NEC Karuizawa 72 Golf Tournament, and the 2020 Nitori Ladies Golf Tournament in the LPGA of Japan Tour.

She’s half Filipino-half Japanese

Her mother is a Bulakenya, while her father is a Japanese; hence, her name. Saso grew up in the Philippines, where she started playing golf at a tender age of eight. According to Saso, it was her father who introduced her to the sport and who, according to Manila Times, is also her personal coach, aside from her professional coaches.

She’s a big fan of Rory McIlroy

The new US Women’s Open champion has repeatedly cited Rory McIlroy as her idol, sharing that she actually watched hours worth of videos of McIlroy’s swing so that she can mirror her swing after his. And it’s actually really similar, as this comparison shows.

🤯🤯🤯 pic.twitter.com/P7yWiR3URQ

— Ryan Lavner (@RyanLavnerGC) June 5, 2021

The four-time men’s major champion is flattered, tweeting that “Everyone’s going to be watching Yuka Saso swing videos on YouTube now.”

Hey @McIlroyRory!

She did. #USWomensOpen pic.twitter.com/ZSjSA97yPX

— U.S. Women’s Open (USGA) (@uswomensopen) June 6, 2021

Next: The Olympics

Before winning the US Women’s Open, Saso with ranking No. 22 was already part of the list of women set to compete at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. She even shared that her dream is “to win the Olympic gold.” The top 60 of the International Golf Federation Olympic qualifying rankings by the cut-off date on June 28 would be eligible to compete in Tokyo, and with her No. 22 rank even before her US Women’s Open Championship win, Saso’s spot was already a near-guarantee. Now that she bagged the championship, it seems that dream is much closer than ever now, with the Tokyo Olympics set to be held this July.

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