Miyu Yamashita, the 24-year-old Japanese rising star, won her first major championship at the 2025 AIG Women’s Open. She is the fourth major champion from Japan in the last two seasons. Yamashita shot -2 for the day and -11 on the week to win by two strokes.
Yamashita, despite never giving up her lead since Friday, was challenged throughout Sunday. Early in the round it was her playing partner A Lim Kim, who pulled even with her on the second hole, but bogeyed holes 3 and 4 to fall back.
Charley Hull was the story for much of the round. The Englishwoman was playing with a bit of a home turf advantage with the Welsh crowd behind her. She had birdies on 5, 6 and 8 to get to -9 by the turn despite pars on both of the par 5s on the front side. With birdies on 12 and 14, it looked like she was going to finally get that first major title, but bogeys on 16 and 17 took the wind out of her sails.
That left Yamashita, who played phenomenally stable golf for the majority of the day. She corrected the driver issues that plagued her in round 3, hitting nine fairways. She didn’t sink a lot of putts, especially early, but outside of hole 16, she was really never in danger of three putting. On that 16th hole, she made a huge comeback putt that may have been the defining moment of the tournament.
Yamashita made three front nine birdies and didn’t drop her first shot until 17. Yamashita looked a bit shaky in Saturday’s round. While she is an experienced champion on the JLPGA Tour, with 13 wins in her short career, she hadn’t ever been in a position of playing with the lead in a major championship. Sunday, she was in prime form and never looked fazed.
Yamashita joins Mao Saigo, The Chevron Champion, as a fellow Japanese major champion in 2025. In 2024, Yuka Saso won the U.S. Women’s Open and Ayaka Furue won the Evian Championship. Yamashita was joined in the top five by her fellow countrywomen Minami Katsu and Rio Takeda.
For Hull, it is her fourth runner-up finish in a major championship and second in this championship, after losing out to Lilia Vu in 2023.
Yamashita will also take the Louise Suggs Rookie of the Year lead with this win over Takeda. It was a memorable birthday for Yamashita, who turned 24 Saturday.
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