In 2021 Tsubasa Kajitani won the Augusta National Women’s Amateur and a few days later Hideki Matsuyama won the Masters. Keita Nakajima has been the number 1 male amateur for 104 weeks in a row. And six of the top 30 professional women in the world are Japanese. Now Saki Baba, the 17-year-old Tokyo-born sensation, has scored a resounding victory at the US Women’s Amateur Championship with near-flawless play over seven days at Chambers Bay in University Place, Washington.
The Japanese golf community is sure to be smiling when it wakes up to this expected result from the 45th-ranked fan in the world.
With a landslide 11 and 9 win over 21-year-old Monet Chun of Canada in the 36-hole championship match scheduled for Sunday, Baba’s victory is the third-largest margin of victory in championship history. The teenager is the first Japanese player to lift the Robert Cox Trophy in 37 years, since Michiko Hattori won it in 1985 aged 16.
Baba looked unstoppable all day at the former US Open venue. He tore up Chambers Bay’s Linksy setup, sporting his signature sun sleeves, and drained putts from seemingly everywhere with his center-shaft putter. Up seven after 18 am, Baba had a brief slip on the 20th and 21st holes, giving two back to Chun, who plays at the University of Michigan. But that problem didn’t last long, the mishap propelled Baba to win six holes in a row, ending the match only on the 27th hole of the day. The Japan Wellness Highschool student expertly sealed victory, sinking a mid-range birdie putt on the par 3 10.
“It was pretty amazing just looking at it,” Chun said. “She was going for every pin, hitting every putt, and that’s hard to match.”
Baba credits much of his confidence this week to his local Chambers Bay caddy, Beau Brushert, who has been looping there for 13 years.
“I think it’s been my caddy Beau who has really helped me,” Baba said through his interpreter. “The way we were reading everything was really good.”
The pair randomly paired up earlier in the week and developed an effective system to combat the language barrier: Baba and Brushert used hand signals and yard book illustrations to communicate.
“We’ve gotten good at sign language,” Brushert said. “And I’m an amazing artist in the stick figure yard book. I’m a good stick figure artist. I just tell her where to put it, and yes, she has done the rest. She is amazing.”
Baba, who plays at Forest Narusawa Golf & Country Club outside Tokyo, competes on the Japan Golf Association International Team at home. Standing 5-foot-7, he takes inspiration from his golf idol, Nelly Korda.
Before this summer, Baba was an outsider to competitive American golf, though you’d never guess based on his stellar performance in three USGA championships. Baba qualified for the US Women’s Open when she turned 17, then became one of four amateurs to make the cut at Pine Needles in June. At the US Girls’ Junior in July, hosted at the Olde Stone in Bowling Green, Ky., Baba earned medalist honors and reached the round of 32. Ben Vigil, Baba’s referee during the round of 64 at the Girls’ Junior, described Baba’s lack of match-play experience on Twitter: “I refereed Saki’s round of 16 match at #USGirlsJunior, it was basically her first match-play experience. She didn’t even know how to concede putts.”
Despite the initial unfamiliarity, Baba expressed to the media throughout the week how enthusiastic he has become about playing golf in the US and how much he has felt at home.
“The people here are very nice, so I was able to meet those people and it made me very happy,” Baba said earlier in the week. “Being able to play in the United States is very different from what I’ve been playing, that’s what made me happy.”
Baba’s summer in the US would not have been possible were it not for the change in amateur golf rules in January, which allowed the teenager to hire 12 sponsors to help finance her initial trip to Pine Needles. Baba’s father Tetsuya told Golf Digest Japan that her travels would have forced him to borrow money if it weren’t for companies that were willing to take a chance on her daughter. Wise investments, so to speak.
By reaching the final, both Baba and Chun earned waivers for the US Women’s Open at Pebble Beach in 2023. Baba’s impressive play in her first summer on the American golf scene heralds a promising future for the latest young Japanese star.
Source: www.golfdigest.com