The week in Pennsylvania began with the unthinkable.
The biggest story in golf so far in 2024 – Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 1 Nelly Korda – was made human by the diabolical 12th hole at Lancaster Country Club. She carded a 10 on a hole for the first time in nearly 8,700 holes as an LPGA Tour professional, her U.S. Women’s Open dream dashed before media center coffee could cool off Thursday morning.
But the week ended with a classic United States Open flourish. Just as two-time major champion Minjee Lee looked poised to sprint away from the pack, Yuka Saso rattled off four birdies in a five-hole stretch on the back nine to reel in her second U.S. Women’s Open title. The two clubs in her bag on the spectrum ends of length played the biggest role in her march to another major championship victory.
Saso brilliant on the greens
While many of the world’s best players struggled to find the right speed on the difficult putting surfaces at Lancaster Country Club, Saso looked downright cozy on the greens. Saso made a grand total of 420 feet of putts for the championship, nearly 50 feet more than any other player. Her 13.5 strokes gained putting were not only best in the field, but they were also the most for any player in a single LPGA Tour event so far in 2024 by nearly half a stroke.
Saso entered the week making about 1.8 putts per round of 10 feet or longer this season. At Lancaster, she made 14 putts of at least 10 feet for the week, the most of any player. Her 34 one-putts for the week were five more than anybody else as well. That she had both a four-putt and a three-putt in the final round and still led the championship in strokes gained putting is a further testament to just how incredible she was with her shortest club throughout the week.
At just 22 years old, Saso is the youngest two-time U.S. Women’s Open champion in history, surpassing Hollis Stacy (24 years, 4 months, 17 days in 1978) for that distinction. The Japanese player is just the fourth player from outside the United States to win multiple U.S. Women’s Open titles, joining Annika Sorenstam (Sweden), Inbee Park (Republic of Korea) and Karrie Webb (Australia). Saso is the third player in LPGA Tour history to earn both of her first two wins in majors, joining Se Ri Pak and In Gee Chun – the previous winner of a U.S. Women’s Open held at Lancaster Country Club.
Power player
Saso also used her power game to significant gains throughout the week. She was one of just three players to average at least 270 yards off the tee across all four rounds, joining Maude-Aimee Leblanc and Yan Liu. Saso ranked third for the week in strokes gained off the tee, behind only Alexa Pano and Casandra Alexander.
Compared to the rest of the contenders at Lancaster, performance off the tee was an especially vital element to Saso’s success. Saso got 34.2% of her total strokes gained from shots off the tee. The remainder of the players in the top-10? Just 11.3%
With just one top-10 finish on the season entering the week, Saso had a 1.8% pre-tournament probability of winning according to KPMG Performance Insights, the 17th-highest rate of any player. Saso will invariably be much higher in those projections in the years to come when analyzing the difficult setups presented by the U.S. Women’s Open.
A trying test
Throughout the week, Lancaster Country Club again showed why it’s one of the most underrated championship venues in the United States. As enormous crowds were treated to an excellent week of competition, the golf course showed its teeth while identifying a fitting champion.
Just two players finished the championship under par, the fewest at a U.S. Women’s Open in ten years. At Pinehurst No. 2 in 2014, winner Michelle Wie West was the sole player to finish with a score better than par. For the week, the field finished with an average score to par of +4.02, again the highest for a U.S. Women’s Open since Pinehurst in 2014 (+4.61). The field hit the green in regulation at just over 61% for the championship, significantly below the average on the LPGA Tour this season (about 66%).
Performances to build upon
Ally Ewing tied the low round of the championship on Sunday, carding a brilliant 66. Her approach play was excellent, as she gained more than four strokes on the field, a personal season-high for any single round. Across the final two rounds, Ewing’s average proximity to the hole on approach shots was 23 feet, about half the field average for the championship. Her tie for third place is her best career result in any major.
Fellow U.S. Solheim Cup Team member Andrea Lee tied with Ewing, also picking up her best career finish in a major championship. Lee is the only player to have finished in the top-20 in each of the last three LPGA majors contested. The former top-ranked amateur in the world, Lee can’t play the power game like some of her peers; last week, she surrendered nearly 40 yards off the tee on average to Saso.
But when her approach play and putting are sharp, she can still compete with anybody, anywhere. Lee has gained at least one stroke with her approach play and her putting in eight rounds this season, including in three rounds at last week’s U.S. Women’s Open. Her scoring average when she does that is 68.38.
In just her fourth start of the LPGA season, Atthaya Thitikul is rediscovering her peak form. Thitikul closed her championship with rounds of 68-68, tied for the second-best closing 36-hole score of any player (Ewing shot 68-66). The 21-year-old from Thailand gained 6.79 strokes with her ball striking on the weekend, most of any player. It was her seventh top-10 finish in a major since the summer of 2021.
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