Reigning major champ Mao Saigo may be proving she's the real deal at the U.S. Open

New York Times

2 days ago

ERIN, Wisc. — The only thing stopping Mao Saigo from completely running away with this U.S. Open was hitting too good a shot.
On a heater. Coming off a major win. This 23-year-old Japanese newcomer the golf world still hardly knows hit a spinny little pitch so perfect it bounced three feet in front of the pin — clearly about to halt right behind the hole for a birdie putt — and struck the center of the flagstick.
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It bounced off and rolled. And kept rolling. Oh no. Down the slope. Off the edge. Into a bunker.
The ball rolled 90 feet away from the pin into the sand, a comically bad break flipping the hole from a likely birdie to a bogey.
'I did a pretty good third shot,' Saigo said through a translator. 'It was very good. However, I missed birdie chance. But I thought that was not my mistake, I just thought to myself that it was just unlucky.'
How dialed in is Mao Saigo?
Her lone blemish – this bogey on 14 – came on an incredibly unlucky break.@Ally pic.twitter.com/jat7bXu2AO
— U.S. Women's Open (@uswomensopen) May 30, 2025
No problem. Because the thing we're quickly learning about Saigo is she's not going to go away. She's not just somebody on a Friday run. She's not just a random Chevron Championship winner we'll forget by next year. She stuck her next par-three approach to three feet. She birdied four of five holes. She shot a second-round 66 — the best round of the week — to enter the weekend with a two-shot lead at the U.S. Women's Open with a chance to become the first back-to-back major winner in a decade.
For all the stories of Friday at Erin Hills, from Nelly Korda's 67 launching her into contention to Sarah Schmelzel's opening-nine 31, the greatest lesson may be that we didn't realize who Saigo really was.
The way she won the Chevron in April, with Ariya Jutanugarn disastrously whiffing a chip to set up a five-way playoff, and then for Ruoning Yin to miss her eagle and birdie putts before Saigo sunk hers for the surprise win, it ran the risk of being one of those women's major championship winners that blends into history. It did not propel her into stardom. She entered the week with the 20th-highest odds to win in the field.
Now, it all just looks a little different. The entire picture is clearer.
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Suddenly, you notice her at 20 on the LPGA of Japan Tour, winning five tournaments in two months like a Japanese tour Nelly Korda. You remember she showed up in the States and won LPGA Rookie of the Year with two major top 10s at 22. And then you see that major championship at 23, playing in the final Sunday group, and you realize she might be something else entirely.
The shame of language gaps in sports is purely that we don't get to know the real players through a translator. Though translators do fine and admirable work under pressure, we don't get the true vibe of a player—their tones, intimations, nuances. Some players, who'd rather not speak often, brilliantly use it to give boring answers and not be requested for interviews. Generalities work. Nobody can blame you.
This matters, because after Saigo won the Chevron, she was asked what was next. The player who entered the week ranked 37th in the world did not give a generality.
'I still have four more majors to go, and I want to shoot for No. 1 in the world,' she said via translator. 'I will do my best in the remaining four majors.'
Or Friday, after that dominant 66, she was asked what winning a major did for her confidence:
'I think that I was able to be more confident about my judgments that I make. I would like to play my play rather than thinking about changing myself. I want to do and play my play.'
Saigo wants to play her way. And Friday, she was indeed a thrilling watch. She hunted tough pins on 11 and 17 and placed approaches within five feet. She sank tough birdie putts on 1 and 2. On the par five 7th, her ball was stuck so deep in the rough that all she could do was hit an ugly, weak 7 iron to the left side of the fairway. But Saigo, hitting her third shot up a steep hill, stuck that 125-yard shot four feet from the pin for her seventh birdie of the round. Or on 8, she had another awkward lie in the fairway rough. She creatively played a fairway wound and bounced it off the sharp green front hill and rolled it to the center of the green. Her way.
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And for as much as modern women's professional golf is often dictated by East Asian greats like South Korea's 34 wins this century or Australian/New Zealand greats of East Asian descent, the famously golf-loving country of Japan hadn't produced many winners.
Until recently.
Chako Higuchi won the LPGA Championship in 1977. Ai Miyazato reached world No. 1 in 2010. But the country went 42 years without a major until Hinako Shibuno's British Open win in 2019. Then Yuka Saso, who represented the Philippines until 2022 but now plays for Japan, won the 2021 and 2024 U.S. Women's Opens. Ayaka Furue won the 2024 Evian. Then, Saigo at Chevron.
The No. 13, 14, 15 and 16 players in the Rolex Rankings are all Japanese and between 22 and 25 years of age: Saigo, Furue, Miyu Yamashita, Rio Takeda. The 22-year-old Iwai twins are 23rd (Akie) and 37th (Chisato). Oh, and Nasa Hataoka has six wins. Saso has her two majors. The LPGA of Japan Tour keeps cranking out young, experienced players who've learned how to win, and this week in Wisconsin, Saigo is joined in contention by Shibuno, Takeda and the Iwais all under par.
And maybe Saigo is just riding a wave. Maybe she'll play herself out of contention Saturday and fade down the rankings by next year. The sport has seen it many times before, hot streaks of one or two years that don't quite last.
Or maybe we're seeing a new killer on tour, a young, big-game hunter who will go toe to toe with Nelly Korda for the U.S. Open and snag consecutive majors at 23.
Whatever happens, we know one thing. She's playing her way.