Yuka Saso cops PSA Athlete of the Year honors after stellar showing in pro debut

Thanks to her trailblazing debut in ladies’ professional golf, Yuka Saso gets the coveted nod for the 2020 Athlete of the Year by the Philippine Sportswriters’ Association, ahead of the much-anticipated virtual awards night on March 27.

It will be the first solo award for the Bulaqueña of San Ildefonso in the country’s prestigious organization of sporting journalists, after winning her first two years before by sharing it with her double-gold winning troika of Lois Kaye Go and Bianca Pagdanganan alongside weightlifter Hidylin Diaz for their Asian Games heroics in Indonesia.

After leading them to the top of the pile in both the team and the individual events on the Pondok Indah course, Saso turned pro in 2019 by gaining her tour card for the Japan LPGA Tour, and made her mark right away by finishing fifth in Chiba’s Earth Mondahmin Cup last June.

She then owned the month of August as she took the titles at Nagano’s NEC Karuizawa 72 and the Nitori Ladies at Hokkaido and took part on her major debut at the US Women’s Open in December, finishing for a seven-way tie at 13th in Houston.

As of this writing, Saso was third in the points race for the Mercedes-Benz Player of the Year behind Ayaka Furue and Sakurai Koiwai and was the top money-getter of the tour with more than 93 million yen to her account, 2.7 million yen ahead of Furue. In addition to the twin victories, she was currently the leader in top-ten finishes with eight and only missed the cut thrice in her first fifteen tournaments.

FILE Photo: Atsushi Tomura/Getty Images