Saso needs to raise game to next level
I’ll just stick to the plan, enjoy every moment and gain a lot of experience
Away from the spotlight hogged by a slew of luminaries, Yuka Saso mounts her hushed battle in the US Women’s Open beginning Thursday in San Francisco, California, armed with a game she hoped would hold up against the best of the best in the next four days.
As her wont — both in regular tournaments and Major championships, she isn’t putting much pressure on herself to deliver but would rather relish the chance of playing against the cream of the crop and learn a thing or two from them.
“I’ll just stick to the plan, enjoy every moment and gain a lot of experience,” she said. Sure, two Majors, including a joint 13th place effort in her US Women’s Open debut in Houston last December, and a strong tied for sixth finish in the LOTTE Championship in Hawaii last April, won’t make her an overnight star but the Filipino-Japanese is tracking down that path with her enormous talent, work ethics and positive mindset.
“I keep the same level of confidence in all tournaments that I play in,” the Olympic-bound Saso told the Daily Tribune Wednesday.
But she believes she must go a notch higher if she is to contend in the world’s premier ladies championship offering the richest purse ($5.5 million) ever in women’s pro golf, at the exacting Lake course of the Olympic Club.
“The course is long with narrow fairways,” added the ICTSI-backed ace, who honed her talent and skills in Japan
LPGA where she has posted two victories in a sterling rookie season last year. “The greens are small and fast.”
I keep the same level of confidence in all tournaments that I play in.
In short, tacking the par-71, 6546-yard layout would require creativity with each hole providing different tests, the first five at the front featuring less-forgiving fairways with reverse cambers.
“It is important that both my long and short game must click,” said Saso, bracing for a cold, windy start at 8:21 a.m. on the first hole with Marina Alex of the US and 2015 champion In Gee Chun of Korea, and holder of the lowest winning score (21-under) in a major in the Evian Championship in 2016.
"It's cold and windy out there," she said after sampling the course, which has hosted five US (men's) Open, Wednesday.
A. Lim Kim, also of Korea, struck from nowhere and claimed the crown last year but the storied event has not seen a repeat winner in the last 12 editions, making this year’s chase a wide open one.
Leading the hunt are the world’s top three, Koreans Jin Young Ko, Inbee Park and Sei Young Kim, with No. 4 Nelly Korda of the US and the next six in the world rankings, Brooke Henderson of Canada, American Daniella Kang, Korean Kim Hyo-Joo, Lydia Ko of New Zealand, Lexi Thompson, also of the US, and Thai sensation Patty Tavatanakit, who surprised the elite field to rule the season’s first major, the ANA Inspiration, at Rancho Mirage, California last April.
But as in all her campaigns, Saso, a shoo-in for Team Philippines in the upcoming Tokyo Games, is unfazed by the credentials of her rivals, focusing more on her game while working on improving her competitiveness in her continuing pursuit of golfing glory.