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Mao Saigo Wins LPGA Chevron Championship in Historic, Wild Five-Way Playoff

After multiple mishaps down the stretch from her competitors, the 23-year-old from Japan claimed her first major championship title in a five-way playoff.

Max Schreiber

Mao Saigo won the Chevron Championship for her maiden LPGA and major title.
Mao Saigo won the Chevron Championship for her maiden LPGA and major title. / Erik Williams-Imagn Images

A five-way playoff—the largest in LPGA major championship history—was needed to decide the Chevron Championship. 

Ariya Jutanugarn, though, could have won it in regulation if not for a baffling whiffed chip. 

MORE: Chevron Championship results, payouts

Leading by a stroke on the 72nd hole, the 29-year-old Thai faced a chip from the greenside rough for her third shot on the Club at Carlton Woods’s closing par-5. Then, with a tough lie, she barely advanced the ball en route to make a bogey. That dropped her to 7 under, tied with fellow major champions Hyo Joo Kim and Ruoning Yin. 

In the group behind, Mao Saigo and Lindy Duncan made birdie, joining the playoff. 

And after a wild sequence on the putting surface, Saigo emerged victorious for her maiden LPGA title. 

“It was my dream to earn this major. It is my first time to win this tournament,” she said afterward, “and I was able to realize my dream and I’m very happy about this.”

In the playoff, Yin would hit the shot of a lifetime, and it appeared she was on the brink of claiming her second major win. 

The 22-year-old from China knocked her second shot to a little over 10 feet, but missed her eagle putt and then her comebacker lipped out. 

Jutanugarn had a chance for redemption, but missed her mid-range birdie putt lipped out, too. Meanwhile, Kim, a 29-year-old Korean, also missed a birdie putt and Duncan, a 34-year-old American looking for her first win, made bogey. 

Saigo, a 23-year-old from Japan, is the reigning LPGA Rookie of the Year and entered the week ranked No. 37 in the world rankings. 

Now, after several missed opportunities from her competitors, she’s forever etched in LPGA lore as a major champion.

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Max Schreiber
MAX SCHREIBER

Max Schreiber is a contributor to the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated, covering golf. Before joining SI in October 2024, the Mahwah, N.J., native, worked as an associate editor for the Golf Channel and wrote for RyderCup.com and FanSided. He is a multiplatform producer for Newsday and has a bachelor's in communications and journalism from Quinnipiac University. In his free time, you can find him doing anything regarding the Yankees, Giants, Knicks and Islanders.

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