Yuka Saso rallies to win 2024 U.S. Women’s Open for second major title
Minjee Lee was bearing down on her second U.S. Women’s Open title and third career major but stumbled down the stretch. She was 1 over through eight holes and then bogeyed the ninth and 10th holes before carding double bogeys on the 12th and 14th to tumble down the leaderboard. With four holes left, she found herself six shots back of the lead.
Meanwhile, it was another recent U.S. Women’s Open champ, Yuka Saso, making the right kind of Sunday noise. After starting the day three shots back, Saso overcame a double bogey on the par-3 sixth hole with four birdies over a five-hole stretch on the back nine. Her fifth birdie of the day on the 232-yard, par-4 16th got her to 5 under and put her three shots up on Andrea Lee with two to go.
A bogey on the next hole tightened things up a bit but a great chip to tap-in distance on the final hole secured a final-round 68, and put her 4 under on the leaderboard. She then had to wait to see if Andrea Lee, two shots back, could track her down. But she could not.
Saso shot three of her four rounds in the 60s and becomes the second woman to make majors her first two LPGA wins, joining Seri Pak.
Saso, the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open champ at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, now has two Open titles. She’s the 13th golfer to win the tournament more than once and she’s now one of seven with two victories, joining Louise Suggs (1949, 1952), JoAnne Gunderson Carner (1971, 1976), Meg Mallon (1991, 2004), Patty Sheehan (1992, 1994), Juli Inkster (1999, 2002) and Inbee Park (2008, 2013).
The only women with more than two USWO’s are Betsy Rawls (1951, 1953, 1957, 1960), Mickey Wright (1958, 1959, 1961, 1964), Babe Didrikson Zaharias (1948, 1950, 1954), Susie Maxwell Berning (1968, 1972, 1973), Hollis Stacy (1977, 1978, 1984) and Annika Sorenstam (1995, 1996, 2006).
