Fiery Saso rebounds with solid 65, ties for lead

MANILA, Philippines — There is something about failure that drives rookie Yuka Saso to succeed.

Coming off a missed cut stint in Chiba, the young Fil- Japanese dished out a brilliant start enough to erase the stigma of her failed bid in the Itoen Ladies tournament last week, a bogey-free six-under 65 that put her alongside Yuna Nishimura and Ayaka Furue on top of the Daio Paper Elleair Ladies Open in Ehime Prefecture yesterday.

It was just the first round of the 72-hole, Y100 million championship, the penultimate leg of the pandemic-hit LPGA of Japan Tour season, but the way the 19-year-old Player of the Year and money race frontrunner tamed the backside of par-71 Elleair Golf Club Matsuyama with four straight birdies to launch her title drive, there could be more of the same to expect from the NEC Karuizawa and Nitori Ladies champion in the next three days.

She did slow down after that birdie-splurge from No. 10, settling for eight pars before hitting another on No. 4 then closing out with her sixth birdie on the par-5 ninth for a 33-32 on a course which hosted last year’s Japan Women’s Amateur Open where Saso wound up tied for 26th.

“But it was summer last year and the appearance (of the course) has changed. There are ups and downs and I had to be careful of the OB (out-of-bounds) since the fairways are narrow,” said Saso