Yuka Saso jumped back to her career-high No. 8 in the women’s world golf rankings this week following her stint in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The 20-year-old Fil-Japanese shared the ninth place with four others in her debut Olympic appearance, seven strokes behind gold-medal winner and world No. 1 Nelly Korda of the United States.
Saso finished with a 10-under 274 total in the four-round competition following a sluggish start that had her struggling with a 3-over 74.
The reigning US Women’s Open champion quickly recovered in the next three rounds including an impressive 6-under 65 in the fourth round, but by then Korda was too far to catch up.
Saso has been in the Top 10 for 10 consecutive weeks after propelling from No. 40 to No. 9 with her US Women’s Open victory last June.
She improved to No. 8 and held it for a month before briefly slipping back to No. 9 after her stints at the KPGM Women’s PGA Championship where she placed at joint 21st and the Marathon LPGA Classic Presented by Dana where she finished tied for fifth.
All the Top 7 players maintained their rankings: Korda; Koreans Jin Young Ko, In Bee Park and Sei Young Kim; American Danielle Kang, Korean Kim Hyo-Joo and Canada’s Brooke Henderson.
New Zealand’s Lydia Ko climbed two notches and Australia’s Lee Minjee slipped two spots to complete the Top 10.