Asian Games Golden Girl Seizes Olympic Club Initiative

San Francisco, United States: Golf is a game obsessed with numbers. Whether it’s the numerals we write on the scorecard or the myriad of statistics produced by sabermetric gurus, fans and media love to debate figures until our brains go on information overload.

But here are three key numbers to digest from the 76th US Women’s Open Championship that don’t have to do with strokes gained, cost of the rough or greens in regulation. They are: 19-11-17, and they could be quite relatable come Sunday afternoon at The Olympic Club.

Although it appears to be a locker combination, the trio of figures represent Yuka Saso’s exact age on Sunday. And why is that important? Should the 36-hole leader from the Philippines go on and hoist the Harton S. Semple Trophy, she would be the exact same age as the US Women’s Open’s youngest champion all-time: Park In-bee. Park was 19 years, 11 months, 17 days old when she captured this title 13 years ago at Interlachen Country Club outside of Minneapolis.

Since then, the World Golf Hall of Fame inductee has captured six additional Majors, including a second US Women’s Open title (2013).

Following her four-under-par 67 on Friday, Saso is half-way home to collecting Major number one. Her six-under total of 136 is one stroke better than 2019 champion Jeong-eun Lee6. Two others – American professional Megan Khang and the darling of this competition thus far, 17-year-old New Jersey amateur Megha Ganne – are two strokes back.

Major champion Feng Shanshan is three off the lead at 138, while the aforementioned Park, Major champion Lexi Thompson and 18-hole co-leader Mel Reid are tied at two-under 140.

For the second consecutive day, players were greeted with typical early June San Francisco weather – a morning marine layer followed by peeks of sunshine, temperatures in the 50s and breezes in the five-to-10-miles per hour range.

Despite her youth, Saso has a bit of a comfort level around leaderboards. Playing on a sponsor’s exemption in mid-April, she opened with a pair of 64s in the LPGA Tour’s Lotte Championship in Hawaii before weekend rounds of 71-70 dropped her into a share of sixth.

Two years ago, she advanced to the semi-finals of the US Girls’ Junior, then passed up a scholarship offer from the University of Georgia to turn professional. Since then, Saso, a semi-finalist in the 2016 US Women’s Amateur, has captured two events on the LPGA Tour of Japan and risen to 40th in the Rolex World Rankings.

Despite playing most of Friday’s round from the rough – she hit just six fairways and is tied for 123rd in that category (14 of 28) – Saso managed to hit 13 greens and register six birdies against just two bogeys. Starting the day on the ninth, she closed her round with a seven-foot birdie on the 422-yard fifth and a 14-footer on the 162-yard eighth.

“I hit good shots from the rough today and holed a couple putts. I think that made my day good,” said Saso, individual gold medallist at the Jakarta Asian Games and runner-up to Atthaya Thitikul in the inaugural Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific in 2018.

Lee6, who tied for sixth in her title defence last December at Champions Golf Club, closed with a flurry of birdies on 15, 16 and 17 to shoot 67, earning a spot in Saturday’s final pairing with Saso.