Yuka Saso’s golf odyssey: Philippines to Japan via US Open win

When a little-known teenager from the Philippines won the US Women’s Open last year, it revolutionized her life — but it also left her with some difficult choices.

Yuka Saso will have the new experience of defending a major next week. But in Pine Needles, she’ll be flying a different flag: Japan’s crimson red circle.

Saso, who was born in the Philippines and has a Filipino mother and a Japanese father, wracked her brains over the “extremely tough” decision to switch allegiance to her father’s homeland.

Adults in Japan are not allowed to have dual nationality, so Saso will have to make a difficult decision before she turns 21 next month.

“I grew up in the Philippines and I played big events with the Philippine flag beside my name so it was a big decision,” she told AFP.

“It was very difficult… I’m a professional golfer. I needed to make a decision that was good for my job.”

The Japanese passport shifted the scales in favor of easier travel in the post-pandemic world.

“I think everybody knows that the Japan passport is more powerful, it takes less work with the stuff outside golf,” said Saso via video call from the United States.

Saso will always have a soft spot in her heart for the Philippines, where she won two gold medals at the 2018 Asian Games and competed for them again at the Tokyo Olympics last year.

“I felt very honored to represent my mum’s country, those big events… all those memories,” Saso said.

“Hopefully people will not think that I abandoned the Philippines because I love the Philippines. I also love Japan.

“It’s still the same me, it’s just the flag.”

Advice from McIlroy

The Japanese passport shifted the scales in favour of easier travel in the post-pandemic world.

Saso will always have a soft spot in her heart for the Philippines, where she won two gold medals at the 2018 Asian Games and competed for them again at the Tokyo Olympics last year.

The Japanese passport shifted the scales in favour of easier travel in the post-pandemic world.

Saso will always have a soft spot in her heart for the Philippines, where she won two gold medals at the 2018 Asian Games and competed for them again at the Tokyo Olympics last year.

The victory catapulted her into the top 10 in the world and earned her a five-year exemption on the LPGA Tour.

It also produced commercial endorsements that boosted my career. The insurance firm AXA was first in line for Saso’s signature.

“I was playing the Japan Tour and to have a big company like AXA reach out, even before the US Open, it gave me the confidence to push myself more.”

Most importantly, the major triumph allowed Saso to meet her idol Rory McIlroy at the US Open for men the following week.

Saso’s flowing swing is very similar to that of Northern Ireland’s four-time major winner. It’s not by chance.

“It’s real that I tried to copy his swing,” she laughed, revealing the pair have kept in touch after meeting again at the Tokyo Olympics.

“I don’t really want to bother him, I know how busy he is. But whenever I have questions, he always replies and gives some advice,” Saso said.

“One of my dreams is to be able to play with him one day.”

‘Very heart-warming’

Pine Needles, amid the windy sandhills of North Carolina, will be a different challenge for Saso, who won her first major alongside the Pacific coast on the third playoff hole with a knee-knocking birdie.

Saso, who said Pine Needles would be “a really challenging course” after practising there earlier this month, was just nine years old when she chose to take up golf and predicted she’d win the US Open.

“My dad loved watching golf. In 2010 we were watching the US Open when Paula Creamer won,” she recalled.

“And I told my dad: ‘I want to win that trophy’ — at the age of eight-and-a-half when I’ve just barely started playing golf!” she laughed.

“My dad was like: ‘Are you sure? I think you should just focus on other things because when you pursue something like being a professional athlete, you need to sacrifice a lot.’

“But I didn’t understand all of that, because I was so young. So I just told him, ‘I want to be a professional golfer’.”

Eleven years later on a sunny Sunday afternoon, Masakazu Saso was greenside to witness his daughter’s precocious prediction come true.

“It was very heart-warming because my dad was there, even though my mum wasn’t there,” said Saso.

“I just felt like I was very thankful for their help because without my family I wouldn’t be here.”