YUKA Saso closed out with a 67 yesterday (Sunday in the US) and finished 14th overall at the end of the Pelican Women’s Championship at the Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida.
Displaying her familiar well-rounded game, Saso had five birdies against two bogeys over the par-70, 6,268-yard course in scoring a 72-hole total of 269 to net $27,753 (around P1.3 million) in the tournament won by world No. 1 American Nelly Korda in thrilling fashion.
In a steely performance, Korda overcame a triple bogey on the 17th hole to scramble back with a 69 and figure in four-way playoff with compatriot Lexi Thompson, who missed a potential winning putt on the 18th; Kiwi Lydia Ko and South Korean Sei Yong Kim, who all had identical 263 at the end of regulation.
The Tokyo Olympic gold medalist, who caught up with a birdie on No. 18, did it again on the same playoff hole, sinking a 22-foot birdie putt, while her rivals settled for pars, and pocketed the top prize of $262,500 (P13.1 million) for her fourth US LPGA tour win this season and her seventh triumph overall.
With a driving average of 321 yards throughout the round, Saso hit 14 fairways and 18 greens in regulation but seemed to have problems with her putting that saw her making 33 putts. She had bogeys on holes Nos. 7 and 15.
She birdied the second, eighth, 11th, 12th and 14th holes for her third sub-par round after shooting 68 and 64, respectively, in the first two rounds and a 70 in the third.
The reigning US Women’s Open champion will play in the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship from Nov. 14 to 17 at the Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida that offers a total pot of $5 million, the biggest outside of the US Women’s Open.
