LANCASTER, Pa. — Yuka Saso couldn’t stop looking at the Harton S. Semple trophy in her winning press conference.
She hadn’t seen her old friend in a couple of years, having first hoisted the gleaming silver cup at The Olympic Club after winning the storied major championship in 2021. That victory changed the entire trajectory of Saso’s life as a professional golfer, as she went on to accept the immediate LPGA Tour membership offered as part of her non-member win.
In the years since she became a Rolex First-Time Winner, Saso has recorded 15 top-10 finishes on the LPGA Tour, coming oh-so-close to a second career title on more than one occasion. But there always seemed to be a bad round here or a missed shot there that kept Saso just outside victory lane, that left her still wanting for that second win.
Players often say that the second victory is harder to capture, that once you know just what the nerves feel like coming down the stretch, they are somehow more difficult to assuage. Ignorance is bliss in a lot of ways when it comes to winning, and once your eyes are opened to how difficult it is to capitalize on an opportunity, it sometimes can become even tougher to come up clutch in the big moments.
But for Saso, confidence in herself and her ability on the golf course seems to abound. She’s quick-witted and wicked smart, with a youthful personality that allows her to poke fun at pretty much anything and anybody in her line of sight, jabs always thrown in good jest. She doesn’t appear to get angry at a wayward shot or a silly bogey, wiping the slate clean on the next hole and charging forward, determined to do better on the next.
So, it was shocking to see the tears well up on Sunday during the trophy ceremony at Lancaster Country Club, emotion that told the story of just how hard Saso had fought to get back to this position.
“I think I really wanted it,” said Saso. “Not just to get a second win but also to prove something to myself. I haven't won in two and a half or three years. I definitely had a little doubt if I can win again or if I won't win again. But I think those experiences helped a lot, and I think I was able to prove a little bit something to myself.
“Since 2021, I haven't won after that. I think it makes it special because after a long wait, and I wasn't expecting to win the U.S. Women's Open. The last time, too, I wasn't expecting it, and this time, too, I wasn't expecting it. I think that's why it made me a bit emotional. Winning just makes you look back on all the things that your family and your team and my sponsors, they supported me throughout good or bad.”
With the victory, Saso becomes the youngest two-time winner of the U.S. Women’s Open and is the 16th player to win the major championship two or more times in her career, the first athlete to accomplish that feat since Inbee Park won at Sebonack Golf Club in 2013. She’s the first player to win this title while representing two different countries and is the first Japanese winner in the tournament’s 79-year history, becoming just the third Japanese major champion ever on the LPGA Tour.
Maybe most laughably, Saso is the second player in the last three years to win a major championship after recording a four-putt in the final round, something that was last done by Brooke Henderson en route to her victory at the 2022 Amundi Evian Championship.
Ironically, just like Henderson did in France, Saso also four-putted the sixth hole at Lancaster Country Club before going on to claim her second Tour title, a double bogey that the young talent has started to think might be a good omen for her in final rounds of major championships.
“I think I played pretty stable. I made double bogey on 6, though,” said Saso. “I think that happens every time. I think that happened to me in 2021. I think that double is good luck.”
Not always knowing quite what to do with the spotlight, Saso doesn’t have any grand plans to celebrate her Pennsylvania triumph, except a potential hang out with the USGA staff and her team tonight once the fanfare has died down.
But maybe when the sun comes up tomorrow in the Red Rose City, Saso will sit back and think about what she accomplished at the 79th U.S. Women’s Open, what this latest victory means for her future as a professional golfer.
Just maybe she’ll look at her old silver friend and smile, content to be together once again.
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