1. Yuka Saso defeated Nasa Hataoka on the third playoff hole to win the U.S. Women’s Open, becoming the first woman or man from the Philippines to win a professional major championship. At 19 years, 11 months and 17 days old, Saso tied Inbee Park as the youngest champion in the history of this championship – down to the exact day. Saso rebounded from a pair of early double bogeys to win – in the last 40 years, she is the only winner of this championship with multiple doubles or worse in the final round.
2. Saso putted brilliantly all week, ranking second in the field in putts per green in regulation (1.66). She was especially brilliant from 5 to 10 feet, making 13 of 16 opportunities from that range, the highest percentage in the field. Saso excelled despite missing fairways, becoming just the second U.S. Women’s Open champion in the last 20 years to hit fewer than 60 percent for the week. A Lim Kim, last year at Champions, is the other.
3. The woman Saso defeated in the playoff, Nasa Hataoka, of Japan, was the only player in the field with a better putts per green in regulation rate (1.64) than Saso had for the week. Hataoka, who started the day six shots off the lead, would have set the record for largest 54-hole deficit overcome to win the U.S. Women’s Open had she come through in the playoff. The 3-time LPGA winner was looking to join countryman Hideki Matsuyama as professional major winners this year – the last time a country besides the United States had both a woman and man win majors in the same calendar year was in 2009, when the Republic of Korea did it (Y.E. Yang and Hyo Joo Kim).
4. For the majority of the day, the championship looked like it belonged to Lexi Thompson. The 54-hole leader increased her margin to as many as five strokes early in the day, before a back-nine 41 derailed her championship hopes. In the six U.S. Opens and Women’s Opens held at The Olympic Club, the 54-hole leader or co-leader has never won. Every player to hold the lead in that situation – Ben Hogan (1955), Arnold Palmer (1966), Tom Watson (1987), Payne Stewart (1998), Graeme McDowell (2012), Jim Furyk (2012) and now Thompson – had all previously won major championships.
5. Thompson, who led entering the final round for the first time in her U.S. Women’s Open career, was making her 15th career start in the championship. The only player in this event’s history to earn her first victory in her 16th start or later is Juli Inkster, who won in her 20th start in 1999. In her Saturday 66, Thompson was 2 under par on holes where she missed the fairway off the tee. On Sunday, she was 4 over par in those situations.
6. 17-year-old Megha Ganne made par on the last hole to secure low-amateur honors by one stroke over Maja Stark. Though she struggled a bit in the final round (77), Ganne was one of the most captivating stories of the week, sharing the lead after Round 1 and contending into Sunday. Ganne finished the week 11-for-21 putting between 10 and 20 feet, the best percentage of any player in the field.
7. Angel Yin wrapped up her rollercoaster week with a solid final-round 70 and a solo sixth-place finish. Yin shot under par in three of her rounds this week, but carded a 79 on Friday. She is one of two players in the last 30 years to shoot 79 or higher in any round and finish in the top 10 of the U.S. Women’s Open – Paula Creamer also did it back in 2009.
8. So Yeon Ryu finished in 22nd place, keeping a remarkable personal streak alive in this championship. Since making her debut in 2010, Ryu has finished in the top 25 in every U.S. Women’s Open she has played. That run of 12 top 25s in a row is the longest such streak of any player the last 25 years. Creamer had a run of 11 straight from 2004 to 2014.
9. In the five U.S. Opens held at The Olympic Club, only four players, combined, finished the championship under par: Billy Casper and Arnold Palmer in 1966, and Scott Simpson and Tom Watson in 1987. This week, five women finished 72 holes better than par. The fifth hole wound up as the most difficult hole on the course, averaging 0.49 strokes over par and yielding just 33 birdies all week. Saso played the hole in 1 under par for the championship.
10. The 77th U.S. Women’s Open will be in Southern Pines, N.C., on June 2-5, 2022 at Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club, the fourth time the course has hosted this championship. It’s three past winners are enormous figures in the game: Annika Sorenstam (1996), Karrie Webb (2001) and Cristie Kerr (2007). It will be the first U.S. Women’s Open held in North Carolina since Michelle Wie West’s triumph at Pinehurst No. 2 in 2014.
Justin Ray is the head of content for Twenty First Group. He has also worked as a senior researcher at ESPN and Golf Channel.
