World No. 5 Saso set for busy November

The Philippines’ Yuka Saso watches her drive from the 10th tee in round 3 of the women’s golf individual stroke play during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Kasumigaseki Country Club in Kawagoe on August 6, 2021. (Photo by YOSHI IWAMOTO / AFP)

Yuka Saso is plunging into a busy November, hoping to cap a sterling, solidly consistent US Ladies Professional Golfers Association (LPGA) season with a victory—or more—against the world’s best female golfers.

The 20-year-old Filipino-Japanese, who has risen to No. 5 in the world rankings, will play one tournament in Japan and two in the United States, where she will compete in the LPGA’s season-ending Tour Championship, according to her management group.

The LPGA rookie “will play the Toto Japan LPGA event … as well as the Pelican LPGA event and CME LPGA event in Florida,” Sterling Sports Management, which represents the reigning US Women’s Open champion, told the Inquirer via e-mail.

The Toto Japan Classic at the North course of Seta Golf Club in Shiga tees off on Nov. 4. The Pelican Women’s Championship, meanwhile, gets going at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida, on Nov. 11. Saso has also earned enough points to qualify for the LPGA Tour Championship, which starts Nov. 18 at Tiburón Golf Club in Naples, Florida.

Saso’s US Open win helped boost her up the world rankings, but it was her consistent play that pulled her up to No. 5. The reigning Asian Games champion and Tokyo Olympian has played eight events in the US LPGA, where she is a rookie, and has finished in the top 10 in five of those eight events.

She finished tied for fourth in her latest tournament, the Founders Cup.