Stat attack

To win the AIG Women’s Open, every facet of a golfer’s game needs to be on-point.

Champions need to demonstrate their ability throughout the bag – from the driver all the way to the putter.

Shiho Kuwaki certainly showed her class as she survived a tense two-hole play-off to lift the biggest title of her fledgling career at Royal Lytham & St Annes.

The 23-year-old led the field for most of day two – before Haeran Ryu burst through the pack – but she regained the advantage at the most crucial time of all; on Championship Sunday.

And Shiho put on an exhibition of ball-striking which will be celebrated for a long time to come.

Green machine

While not the longest off the tee (tied-38th), Shiho certainly made up for it with her accuracy.

Only Arpichaya Yubol (88%) and Lauren Coughlin (80%) hit more fairways than Shiho (79%) in Lytham.

She was the epitome of straight-and-true.

Being able to land the ball where she wanted ultimately meant that Shiho led the way in Greens In Regulation – widely considered the most important statistic for lowering scores.

Shiho hit an incredible 81% of greens in regulation. The next best player in that metric was world number two Jeeno Thitikul (79%).

‘Fairways-and-greens’ is a very much a golfing cliché. But it was a huge reason why Shiho was victorious come Sunday afternoon.

And even when Shiho drove her ball into the right-hand rough on the first hole of the play-off, her recovery shot onto the green, which led to a par, was simply magnificent.

The shot of a Champion.

Birdie fest

Across the 72 holes (and the extra two play-off holes), Shiho landed 15 birdies, including six in round one which left her just two off the lead; a lead held by Thitikul following her record-breaking Thursday.

Such was Shiho’s consistency, she birdied holes 3, 4 and 5 on each of the first two days, paving the way for greatness later in the week.

Her putter was red-hot on the opening day as she needed just 27 putts to complete her five-under 66. Only six players (Paula Martin Sampedro, Aki Iwai, Soo Bin Joo, Wei-Ling Hsu, Mi Hyang Lee and Yuka Saso) required fewer.

Always in touch

A superb opening round, coupled with a solid follow-up presented Shiho with the lead on day two; a lead which was untroubled until Ryu – seeking an incomprehensible third straight major – landed five birdies in her final 12 holes to wrestle the advantage.

That meant Shiho entered the weekend just one behind. She was two strokes behind after the first round and three adrift going into the final round.

She was never far away.

And she ultimately became the tenth player to win the AIG Women’s Open by coming from three or more strokes behind after day three.

Shiho was also the fifth player to win the Championship after a play-off and the first since Ashleigh Buhai in 2022.

She is the fourth Japanese player to win the AIG Women’s Open, following in the footsteps of Ayako Okamoto in 1984, Hinako Shibuno in 2019 and Miyu Yamashita in 2025.

It means that Japanese players have won the AIG Women’s Open in consecutive years. The last time two players from the same country won back-to-back titles was in 2013 and 2014 when Americans Stacy Lewis and Mo Martin triumphed.