AFTER a more than a month’s absence, Yuka Saso returns to the Japanese LPGA Tour when she tees off today in the World Ladies Championship Salonpas Cup at the Ibaraki Golf Club East course in Tsukubamirai.
It will only be the third tournament this year on the Japanese circuit for Saso, who has tried her hand in the US LPGA tour and saw action last month in the Ana Inspiration in California and Lotte Championship in Oahu, Hawaii, respectively, finishing 50th and sixth.
Her last event in Japan was the T-Point Eneos golf championship in March, where she wound up tied for 50th and took home 400,000 yen (roughly P175,000).
“I want play well as usual and aim to make the halfway cut,” Saso said after trying out the par-72, 6,630-yard course. The event offers a top prize of 24 million yen (P10.5 million).
“I thought that it was a course with many trees. That’s why the distance is long. The greens are also fast,” she noted after her first practice round in the 72-hole tournament considered one of the JLPGA’s majors.
The 2018 Asian Games double gold medalist will try to rise anew in the Mercedes Order of Merit and money earnings standings where she has slipped to No. 4.
With two titles under her belt, she has earned a total of 95,371,000 yen (P41.9 million) in 17 events since making her Japanese tour debut last year.
Japanese Sakura Koiwai, Ayaka Furue and Mone Inami occupy the top three places in both categories.
Saso will be in the 12:40 p.m. (1:40 p.m. in Manila) flight in the company of Ayaka Watanabe, who won last year’s Mondamin Cup; and Azuka Kashiwabara, who placed third in the Panasonic Open Ladies tournament last week.
