Saso banks P48.5 million in rookie year

Kim rules us open with birdie binge

MANILA, Philippines — Talk about being merry in this pandemic-hit Christmas season and Yuka Saso and her family couldn’t be any less happier after wrapping up her maiden pro campaign with a whopping P48,499,560 in earnings.

This after she tied for 13th in the US Women’s Open yesterday with a closing 72 for a 289 total worth $96,800 (P4.65 million) in LPGA Tour’s final major championship in Houston, Texas.

In 14 events in the LPGA of Japan this year, which included two wins, the 19-year-old Saso earned a total of P43,335,497 to top the money race. In her pro debut in the Australian Ladies Open last February, she finished tied for 25th place for P511,237.

No other Filipina athlete in history has earned as much as Saso did in a single year.

In Houston, the reigning Asian Games champion missed a Top 10 finish with a late mishap but made a lot of heads turn as a rookie in an LPGA major.

Korean A Lim Kim proved bigger and hotter in chilly conditions at the Cypress Creek course Monday as she pulled off a major comeback by birdying the last three holes for a 67, beating world No. 1 and compatriot Jin Young Ko and American Amy Olson by one in a finale moved a day later due to bad weather and poor playing conditions at the Champions Golf Club in Houston Sunday.

But the delay worked well for Kim, who battled back from five strokes down with a combination of superb iron shots and clutch putts to stay hot on a day when the field wore warmers, thick jackets, bonnets and head gears to fight off the biting cold.

Kim sported a face mask all throughout the final day of the final major of the season, winning in her major debut for a cool $1 million purse on a 281 aggregate.

Saso, who fell behind by as many as nine strokes with a bogey on No. 5 before play was halted Sunday, mounted some kind of a rally despite dropping another stroke on No. 7 . She birdied the next two par-3s (Nos. 8 and 12) then hit another on the par-5 13th to barge into the Top 10 with a three-over overall total.

But the ICTSI-backed shotmaker dropped two strokes on the par-4 17th and ended up at 37-35. Her  289 total spoke well of the caliber of the 19-year-old player who dreams of becoming world No. 1 someday.

But that would take the LPGA of Japan Tour money race leader more majors to compete in and more years to toughen up and sharpen every aspect of her game.

Kim, on the other hand, showed her time has come, pulling through with an array of shots that stood out when the rest of the contenders struggled on the tight par-71 layout’s softened fairways and sleek putting surface.

She was most impressive on the greens, draining in birdies, including one off the fringe in the early going that kept her in the hunt for the crown that was up for grabs until she holed out with a pressure-packed five-foot uphill putt for birdie on the 72nd hole to cap her stirring birdie-binge at the finish for a 33-34.

She pumped her right fist downwards, knowing that she had finally surged ahead of the field with a three-under overall total, three flights ahead of the final group made up of Olson, Thai Moriya Jutanugarn and third-round leader Hinako Shibuno of Japan.

It sure was the most excruciating wait for the 25-year-old Kim but the most rewarding as Olson bogeyed the 16th to fall to one-under overall. Shibuno flubbed a four-footer for par on the 17th and Ko could only finish at two-under 282 after a 68.

Kim thus became only the seventh player to rally from five shots down in the final of the US Women’s Open, and the first since Swede Annika Sorenstam at The Broadmoor in Colorado in 1995.