By Waylon Galvez
Golfer Yuka Saso is now ranked No. 3 in the latest LPGA’s money list, three months after she pocketed the whopping $1 million prize for ruling the US Women’s Open Championship San Francisco, California.
The 20-year-old Fil-Japanese has total earnings of $1,212,225, or approximately P60.61 million – third best behind world No. 1 Nelly Korda of the United States and Lydia Ko of New Zealand.
Korda, the Tokyo Olympics gold medal winner, has earnings of $1,941,977 through 14 events, while Ko has collected $1,214,954 in 15 events.
In comparison, Saso has only joined five tournaments this year, including the Women’s Open in early June when she matched the record of Korea’s Park In-bee as the youngest winner in the US championship’s history at 19 years, 11 months and 17 days.
In the previous tournament of Saso in the LPGA, she finished tied for 39th in the Women’s British Open with Americans Britanny Lincicome and Megan Khang at the Carnoustie Golf Links in Scotland.
After that event, she moved up to the No. 6 spot in the Rolex Women’s World Rankings, a career best so far for the double gold medal winner in the Asian Games in Indonesia in 2018.
Saso is expected to join the $2.3 million Walmart NW Arkansas on Sept. 24-26 in Arizona, the $1.75 million ShopRite LPGA Classic on Oct. 1-3 and the P3million Cognizant Founders Cup on Oct. 7-10 at Galloway and West Caldwell both in New Jersey.
A two-time winner of the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Athlete of the Year, Saso earned a full five-year membership on the LPGA Tour for winning the US Women’s Open title.
