THE WOODLANDS, Texas – When it comes to major championships, the 2025 Chevron Championship proved unforgettable. Mao Saigo, who counts famed Japanese player Jumbo Ozaki as a mentor, ultimately won the five-way playoff and took a victory plunge that quickly turned form celebration to distress as the water was deep and she can’t swim. The women who jumped with her struggled as well.
“Every time I broke the surface, I got pulled under again,” said Saigo’s caddie, Jeffrey Snow. “They were trying to grab someone.”
Mercifully, all turned out well and Saigo and team emerged from the water all smiles in their towels and robe.
Saigo, speaking through an interpreter with the press, didn’t hold back when asked about what’s next.
“I still have four more majors to go, and I want to shoot for No. 1 in the world,” she said. “I will do my best in the remaining four majors.”
18th hole at The Club at Carlton Woods was a hot topic
Before Saigo even got to the jump though, it was already a wild scene on the 18th.
Golf Twitter erupted as players – including Saigo – used the grandstand as a backstop when going for the green in two. Ariya Jutanugarn actually hit the volunteer she was aiming at after her ball bounced off the grandstand.
Jutanugarn couldn’t get a drop for her third, however, and practically whiffed her chip shot, which advanced only a few inches. She wound up making bogey on the hole when a par would’ve won her the tournament outright.
That bogey dropped her to 7 under and into a tie with clubhouse leader Hyo Joo Kim. The pair were later joined by Ruoning Yin, Saigo and Lindy Duncan, the 116th-ranked player in the world whose finding her stride in her mid-30s.
The first five-way playoff in LPGA major championship history commenced on the 18th, and the fear was that this might go on all night.
After a fearless Yin struck an exceptional hybrid some 15 feet beyond the hole, the young Chinese superstar appeared in control. A ghastly three-putt, however, ruined her chances.
Jutanugarn’s birdie attempt took a hard lip-out, ending her chances at a third different major title.
“The front nine was very solid especially with the eagle, but back nine just couple mistakes on par 5 that I made; two bogeys,” she said.
For Duncan, the share of second marked her best finish in a major. The gutsy up-and-down for birdie on the 18th to make it into the playoff gives her a world of confidence going forward.
“That was the loudest I’ve ever heard on a golf course,” said Duncan. “The cheering was incredible. To make a putt like that to get into the playoff I’ll remember forever.”
Mao Saigo is the fifth Japanese golfer to win a major
Saigo shot 2-over 74 in regulation but her two birdies on the 18th made her the fifth Japanese player to win a major. A six-time winner on the JLPGA, Saigo won the 2024 Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year title on strength of consistent play.
As she entered the most pressure-packed moment of her life, Saigo stepped up to a 3-foot putt after everyone around her had collapsed and got the job done.
“I was so laser-focused and nervous and really in the zone,” she said. “All I could think of is the ball in front of me. I couldn’t see anything else.
“I was shaking from nervousness, but I did my best to calm down and I shot and it went in.”
Read the full article here
