Saso vows fight back after US Open misfortune
MANILA, Philipppines — Twelve months after breaking into the women’s pro golf consciousness with a record major triumph in extended fashion, Yuka Saso made an abbreviated stint in the US Women’s Open.
But she took her botched title-retention drive in stride, keeping a positive mindset and ready to learn from the crippling setback by coming back strong in her next LPGA events, including the three other major championships.
“A little disappointed with how I played but it was great,” said Saso, who failed to recover from a horrendous opening 77 at the demanding Pine Needles layout and finished with a 74 for a 151, six strokes off the cutoff line. “It was the feeling that I have never had before, which is awesome.”
“But overall experience, I learned a lot, and with this type of golf course, it means so much to me to have the legend Annika (Sorenstam) playing back and all that happened this week, it’s just awesome.”
But her performance was close to, if not, awful. A poor start of a six-over card somewhat portended the coming off a bleak week for the ICTSI-backed ace, who came into the record $10 million championship brimming with confidence following weeks of preparations and honing up.
She tried to fight back in the second round and inject some hopes into her campaign after that fumbling opener, going one-under with seven holes left to play at the par-71 layout that proved to be a virtual playground to some but a calvary of sorts to those who had failed to advance, some of them major champions.
But Saso closed out in an uncharacteristic manner, dropping strokes when she needed to pick them up most. She wound up with four bogeys in her last five holes in a finish that certainly won’t help fuel one’s sagging bid in a tournament of this size.
With a 74 and a nine-over total, the former Asian Games double gold medalist, who battled back from five down in the last nine holes to force a playoff then outfoxed Nasa Hataoka on the third sudden death hole to clinch the LPGA’s most prestigious major crown at the Olympic Club in San Francisco last year, ended up tied 121st.
Looking forward, Saso, who will turn 21 on June 20, said she did learn a lot from her Open slip, “but it takes time to put that in my next game. So, I’m not going to try to put what I did here in my next (event).”
She will skip next week's ShopRite LPGA Classic in New Jersey but is in the roster of the Meijer LPGA Classic slated June 16-19 in Belmont, Michigan.
“I’m just going to take my time and probably give myself a time to look back and kind of remind myself, okay, this is what I learned that week and try to put that – even 1 percent in my next tournament. I think that will help my game in the future,” she added.
She also hopes to play better the next time she would tackle Pine Needles.
“It has been awesome hospitality here. The food is great. Everything was awesome. Everyone gave me a warm welcome and that was just awesome,” said Saso. “Hopefully, I can come back here in the future again.”
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