1 week Ago
The Chevron Championship reserved all the drama until its final moments. Mao Saigo, a 23-year-old from Japan, emerged from a five-woman playoff — the largest in LPGA major championship history — to win not only her first major, but her first LPGA tournament. It seemed very unlikely that Saigo, the 2024 LPGA Rookie of the Year, would have a chance to win when she had two holes to play — Ariya Jutanugarn had a one-shot lead on the par-5 18th and was playing her third shot out of the rough above the green.
A quick chipping motion resulted in her striking the ball and barely moving it, maybe an inch; Jutanugarn remained over the ball and quickly hit again, but the original swing counted as a stroke. She missed a 15-foot par putt, dropped to 7-under, and created the playoff. Hyo Joo Kim was already at 7 under, and Ruoning Yin made it a three-woman playoff shortly thereafter.
Advertisement It turned chaotic when the final group reached No. 18, with both Lindy Duncan and Saigo making birdie on the hole to get into the playoff party. All five went back to the No.
18 tee box to play the hole again, and this time it looked like it would be Yin emerging as the winner. She had 205 yards out with her second shot, and struck a hybrid so well it one-hopped onto the green — the only of the five to make the green in two shots. But Yin pushed the eagle putt past the hole, and then was crushed as her birdie attempt lipped out.
That put the pressure on Jutanugarn for her birdie putt, only for hers to also lip out. Saigo, who was granted free relief and allowed to drop into the rough when her second shit hit the grandstand, was the only left who could birdie the hole. She poured in the five-footer.
“This is like dreaming,” Saigo said through a translator. The first major of the year goes to Mao Saigo ☝️ pic.twitter.
com/WVYcNL4hE1 — LPGA (@LPGA) April 27, 2025 Saigo, the No. 37 player in the world according to the Rolex rankings, said the birdie putt on No. 18 gave her the necessary confidence heading into the playoff.
The LPGA’s first major of the season struggled from an optics perspective. Galleries were sparse all week, not showing up well for a rare national broadcast audience in the United States on NBC. Golfweek reported that a local Iron Man race and its traffic snarl were among the challenges in getting a substantial crowd to The Club at Carlton Woods, a course in Houston suburb The Woodlands that is not considered spectator-friendly.
Chevron moved the event from Mission Hills Country Club (Palm Springs, Calif.) for 2023 after taking over title sponsorship, putting the major in its home base of Houston. Throughout multiple name changes in its 53-year history, it has struggled to retain the same charm as Dinah Shore, its colloquial name in honor of its founder.
Saigo won $1.2 million for winning the championship. (Top photo: Katelyn Mulcahy / Getty Images).
