The first name of Miyu Yamashita means “beautiful dream” in Japanese.
On Sunday she made her own reality with a 2-under last round 70 to conquer the AIG Women’s open at Royal Porthcawl in Wales.
Her four-day total of 11-below brought her two shots free from Minami Katsu from Japan and Crowd Favorite Charley Hull from England, who made a mid-round load before he took over.
The victory gave Yamashita, 24, her first big title and her first victory on the LPGA tour, where she joined this year.
“This had been a goal of me, something I worked on all my life, a dream that you could say,” said Yamashita. “It is the result of hard work every day, making changes, making improvements and being able to do it now and calling myself a champion is a very special thing.”
Starting the day with a one-shot lead over a Lim Kim from Korea, Yamashita played almost impeccable wave and tasted three birdies to one bogey in bluster conditions along the Bristol channel. Her only hiccups came to the sturdy par-4 17th hole, with which her victory was virtually sealed.
In contrast to Yamashita’s third round in Porthcawl, when she was struggling with her driver, the stable Sunday show was on her way to a 2-over 74. Whatever Swing Glitch donated her, she corrected it after a long Saturday-evening series with her father, who serves her instructor.
“After the round we went to the practice range, and it still didn’t feel quite like I thought it should be,” said Yamashita. “When we got home, we were together, we looked through some of the finer details about the swing, found a few points to improve and today it felt much better alone from the start.”
Sunday’s Yamashita would look familiar with fans in her home country, where she was a force on the JLPGA. Between 2020 and 2024, Yamashita recovered 13 times that Circuit and was the leading money winner and player of the year in 2022 and 2023. In 2024, Yamashita represented Japan at the Olympic Games and finished fourth at Le Golf National in France. She earned her LPGA tour card in 2025 by winning the Q-series last fall.
Despite all her success in the past, Yamashita was entering unpleasant waters on Sunday and played the lead in a major for the first time. And she had a big name that stalks her in Hull, who pulled in one shot from Yamashita with a birdie on the par-4 14th. Together with the crowd, the momentum seemed to be on the side of Hull. But back-to-back bogey’s on 16 and 17 derailed the fiery English woman, who has now earned the uncomfortable honor to complete four times in Majors. While Hull fell back, Yamashita kept stable with a series of coupling stars that ended the piece. When her putt fell on the 18th, Yamashita broke into tears and was surrounded in celebration by colleague -Japanese players Minami Katsu, Rio Takeda, Ayaka Furue and Mao Saigo, who also won her first major this year on the Chevron Championship.
Yamashita who win as motivation.
“It was great,” said Yamashita. “So great to see Saigo win earlier this year and just push me a little harder.”
On a rankings full of international names, the highest American Finisher Megan Khang was in T6. Nelly Korda, who spent the last 17 months on top of the Rolex rankings, closed the tournament with a 2-over 75 for a T36 and is expected to lose its top position in the Jeeno Thitikul of Thailand ranking.
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