Powerhouses of the Pacific By Bill Fields

Powerhouses By Bil l Fiel dS

Se Ri Pak celebrates during

the 1998 U.S. Women’ s

Open Championship.

Se R i Pak, who retired f rom a Ha ll of Fame career in 2016, didn’t compete in the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open, but as sure as there was drama dur ing a topsy-t ur v y fina l round at T he Oly mpic Club in San Francisco, her endur ing influence on golf was clear.

By w inning the U.S. Women’s Open in 1998 — a long w ith the L PGA Championship that same season — Pak ig nited a golf revolution in the R epublic of Korea. Many g irls in Pak ’s home nation were brought into the spor t through the g roundbreak ing achievements of the 20 -year- old major champion, w ith South Koreans soon becoming a force on the L PGA Tour. Nearly a quar ter- cent ur y since Pak motivated her countr y women to excel, women golfers f rom across A sia have made an astonishing impact in majors and beyond.

Chako Hig uchi of Japan (1977 L PGA Championship) was the only A sian, fema le or ma le, to w in a major title pr ior to Pak ’s break through. Star ting in 1998, 25 women representing si x A sian countr ies have won 45 of the 10 4 majors that have been played. Trophies have been lif ted by athletes f rom South Korea, Taiwan, T hailand, Japan, China and the Philippines. (Two major v ictor ies by

Korean-bor n Lydia Ko, who plays for New Zea land, where she g rew up, aren’t counted in the tota l.)

T heir success has been par ticularly str ik ing at the U.S. Women’s Open, where A sian players have capt ured 11 of the last 14 editions of the oldest major in women’s golf — a championship that was won by only three inter nationa l players in its first four decades: Faye Crocker, Ur ug uay, 1955; Cather ine L acoste, France, 1967; Jan Stephenson, Austra lia, 1983.

Yuk a Saso wasn’t a familiar name to A mer ican golf fans until early last June. T hat changed when the 19-year- old representing the Philippines steadied herself f rom a rough star t on Sunday at T he Olympic Club. Saso capitalized when L exi T hompson lost a large lead over the final eight holes, coming home in 41 strokes on a course notor ious for being the place where Ar nold Palmer blew a seven-shot advantage af ter 63 holes at the 1966 U.S. Open to fall into a tie with Billy Casper, who defeated him the following day in a playof f.

With T hompson throw ing away her hold on the championship, Saso, who trailed by si x strokes through No. 10, closed w ith a 73 and tied Nasa Hataok a of Japan at 280. On the third playof f hole, Saso made a birdie to w in the Har ton S. Semple Trophy and the $1 million first pr ize. T he daughter of a Filipina mother (Fr it zie) and Japanese father (Masak a zu), Saso matched Inbee Park of South Korea (20 08, Interlachen Countr y Club) as youngest U.S. Women’s Open champion. Uncannily, Park, who has gone on to w in seven major titles, and Saso were each 19 years, 11 months, 17 days old at the time of their v ictor ies.

“I was just look ing at a ll the g reat players on (the trophy),” Saso said af ter w inning. “I can’t believe my name is going to be here.”

Five other golfers f rom the Far E ast finished in the top 10 behind Saso and Hataok a at T he Oly mpic Club, f ur ther proof of the reg ion’s streng th in the women’s game. A milestone was reached last fa ll when Jin Young Ko won the BM W L adies Championship in her homeland. It was the 20 0th L PGA v ictor y by South Koreans.

“T his is a tremendous honor,” said Ko, No. 1 in the Rolex R ank ings, the ninth A sian golfer to sit atop the list since its for mation in 20 06. “A nd I think it’s ver y for t unate that I am the player, the 20 0th-w in player, and I act ua lly think that it’s rea lly for t unate

that it was an event held in Korea as well. Obv iously, being the player of the 20 0th w in by Koreans was not a goa l that I was working toward. It just happens that I was rea lly focused, and I did my best and this came a long.”

T he t r a i l of suc c ess for S out h Kore a ns t hat c u lm inate d w it h Ko’s la ndmark v ic tor y b ega n w it h l it t le f a nf are in 1988. Ok-He e Ku broke t hroug h t hat spr ing at t he St a ndard R eg ister Turquoise Cla ssic in A r i zona, defe at ing st a ndout s Dot t ie Pepp er a nd Aya ko Ok a moto, of Japa n, a 17-t ime w inner on t he L P GA Tour. B e c ause t he 1988 Summer Oly mpic s were b eing held in S e ou l, t he c ount r y’s at tent ion wa s fo c use d on t hat , a nd Ku’s v ic tor y got l it t le at tent ion — c er t a in ly c ompare d to t he f a nf are t hat g re ete d Pa k ’s double major suc c ess a de c ade later. It wa s a st ar t , t houg h, a nd broug ht to m ind a Kore a n proverb: “If you c ol le c t pie c es of dust , event ua l ly you w i l l have a mount a in.”

Ku, who won 23 tour naments on the L PGA of Japan, never added to her lone L PGA v ictor y. She died at age 56 in 2013, by which time Koreans had become a dominant force on the L PGA Tour.

OF THE PACIFIC

Nasa Hataoka lost in last year’s suddendeath playoff Yuka Saso poses with fans and the trophy after winning the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open at The Olympic Club

“I can’t imag ine that so many Korean women are play ing and succeeding on the L PGA, even in my dreams,” Ku told Golf World t wo years before her death.

T he timing for golf to bloom was bet ter when Pak, a golfer who interspersed smiles bet ween power f ul and accurate shots, came a long. W hen Pak ret ur ned to her native soil in late 1998 af ter tr iumphing in A mer ica, her hero’s welcome was complicated by the fact that she was wor n out, hounded by papara zzi even as she was treated for ex haustion and a v ira l infection in a hospita l.

Pak k new she would be a beacon for women golfers coming up behind her, but that so many ta lented players emerged sur pr ised her. “To be the best, you have to put ever y thing into it,” Pak said a decade ago. “But they shouldn’t have too much pressure, extra pressure. But I think they feel it. T here is only one No. 1 spot.”

T he bat tle in 2021 for first place at T he Oly mpic Club ’s L ake Course — hosting the women for the first time af ter being a fivetime U.S. Open site for the men — was intr ig uing. Megha Ganne, a 17-year- old amateur f rom New Jersey, shared the first-round lead and remained in contention at three under par, tied for third place, through 54 holes. Ganne’s per for mance put her in the fina l g roup ing on Sunday w ith T hompson, whose Sat urday 66 put her at 7 under, one stroke a head of Saso.

It was just Saso’s third appearance in the U.S. Women’s Open. A lthough T hompson was only 26 years old, she was competing in her 15th nationa l championship, hav ing debuted at Pine Needles in 20 07 when she was 12. T he ta lented and popular F lor idian ar r ived in San Francisco w ith 11 career L PGA v ictor ies, the most recent t wo years earlier. Despite her sk ills, T hompson had only one major title, the 2014 K raf t Nabisco Championship.

W hen T hompson played a steady f ront nine at Oly mpic and Saso carded double bogeys at the second and third holes, it looked as if her major drought would be coming to an end and Saso would be lef t w ith a lear ning exper ience. “I was act ua lly a lit tle upset,” Saso said of her shak y star t. “But my caddie ta lked to me and said, ‘Just keep on going. T here are many more holes to go.’ T hat’s what I did.”

Strange things tend to happen at the famed Bay A rea club — in addition to Pa lmer’s 1966 collapse, favored Ben Hogan (1955) and Tom Watson (1987) suf fered U.S. Open disappointments there — and T hompson played a poor back nine, unable to close. A bogey on the fina l hole meant T hompson wasn’t even going to make the playof f and g ive herself a chance for redemption the way A r iya Jutanugar n did in the 2018 championship at Shoa l Creek, where the T hai star lost a 7-shot lead w ith nine to play but won a playof f against Hyo -Joo K im.

Ariya Jutanugarn won the 2018 U.S. Women’s Open in a playoff with Korea’s Kim Hyo-joo

In contrast to T hompson’s back-nine slide, Saso birdied Nos. 16 and 17 to tie Hataok a, whose 68 was one of only four closing scores under 70. A f ter both players par red the t wo holes of an agg regate playof f, Saso’s birdie in sudden death made the dif ference as she became the 11th consecutive major champion f rom outside the United States, the longest A mer ican drought in women’s golf histor y, that Nelly Korda soon ended at the K PMG Women’s PGA Championship.

To see Saso sw ing — taut, complete t ur n going back, hips quick ly and f ully clear ing on the way through — is to think of another world- class golfer. Saso modeled her action af ter that of four-time major w inner Ror y McIlroy, watching his sw ing for many hours on YouTube. T he similar it y of their movements is str ik ing when v iewed side-by-side on v ideo. Two week s af ter w inning the Women’s Open, Saso got to meet her idol as he played a practice round at Tor rey Pines Golf Course for the U.S. Open. His adv ice to Saso: Keep a sw ing jour na l. “Ever yone’s got a bluepr int of what their sw ing is,” McIlroy told repor ters. “If they keep on top of it and they do the same things, do the same dr ills over time, you fast for ward 20 years you’re probably going to have a rea lly good career.”

T he first major w inner f rom the Philippines, a countr y of more than 10 0 million w ith just 10 0 or so golf courses, Saso isn’t the first ta lented Filipina to ear n golf headlines. More than 80 years ago, Dominga Capati, a laundress on a Manila sugar estate that bordered a golf course, picked up the game and defeated v isiting foreig n women players in the Philippine Women’s Open. A couple of decades later, in 1964, Capati played for the Philippines in the inaug ura l Espír ito Santo Trophy, an inter nationa l women’s competition. T he Dominga Capati Memor ia l Tour nament is still played to honor her contr ibutions to golf.

Saso had plent y of suppor t as she made histor y at the Oly mpic Club. Nearby Da ly Cit y is k now n as “Lit tle Manila” for its large number of Filipinos. “I don’t k now what's happening in the Philippines r ight now, but I'm just thank f ul that there’s so many people in the Philippines cheer ing for me,” Saso said. “I don’t k now how to thank them. T hey gave me so much energ y. I want to say thank you to ever yone.”

W hen the defending champion tees of f at Pine Needles, she w ill be play ing under a dif ferent flag. Saso, who competed for the Philippines in the Tok yo Oly mpics last summer, is now representing Japan. Under Japan’s Nationa lit y L aw, a person must choose one nationa lit y before t ur ning 22 years old. Saso cited business reasons, par ticularly the ease of globa l travel w ith a Japanese passpor t, for mak ing the sw itch.

“We are obv iously saddened to see her go, but she w ill a lways be Japanese and Filipino to us,” Bones F loro, an executive w ith the Nationa l Golf A ssociation of the Philippines, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer. “We hope that our countr y men understand and re spect her decision. It’s sad that we lost her in ter ms of representation. But Yuk a w ill a lways have a specia l place in our hear ts as a Filipino, and we are happy for her.”

A golfer representing Japan has never won the U.S. Women’s Open. If Saso successf ully defends her title — Austra lian K ar r ie Webb is the last to do so, at Pine Needles in 20 01 — she would make histor y t wo years r unning. Given the A sian success of the last couple of decades, it wouldn’t be w ise to bet against her. PS