Mao Saigo

Japanese amateur champion in 2019, she joined the LPGA of Japan Tour the following season and had no fewer than seven runner-up finishes in 2021 as she came fourth on their money list. But that was nothing compared to what she achieved in 2022.

In the space of 12 weeks starting in early March Saigo won five times. None of them was by more than two strokes, but her incredible performances, which also included two second-place finishes, lifted her into the world’s top 20 and marked the 20-year-old down as one of the rising stars of the game.