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Paolo Uggetti, ESPN
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — In the identical week that Honolulu native Michelle Wie West bid goodbye to the ladies’s sport, one other Honolulu product, Allisen Corpuz, stepped up at Pebble Seashore to win the U.S. Ladies’s Open — the primary ever performed on the legendary course — for her first LPGA title.
The 25-year-old Corpuz was the one golfer within the 156-player discipline to card under-par rounds all 4 days of the event. And on Sunday, she put collectively a dominant final-round 69 to complete at 9 below — a full 3 photographs away from the sphere — and declare the $2 million prize, the richest ever for an LPGA main champion.
“My thoughts is racing,” Corpuz mentioned after elevating the trophy. “It was one thing I had dreamed of, however on the identical time sort of simply by no means actually anticipated it to occur.”
Corpuz has come a great distance since selecting up the game in Hawaii as a approach to spend time together with her father and brother on the weekends. There, she fell in love with not simply the sport, however the thought of enhancing and hitting the ball farther and farther at her native driving vary.
“Truthfully, I sucked and I needed to get higher,” Corpuz mentioned. “I believe that is simply who I’m as an individual.”
As she improved, Corpuz went on to interrupt Wie West’s document because the youngest participant to qualify for the U.S. Ladies’s Novice Public Hyperlinks event. A number of years later, in 2014, she watched from residence as Wie West gained the U.S. Ladies’s Open at one other historic first-time venue, Pinehurst.
Corpuz joined Wie West as the one main champions from Hawaii.
“She’s been an enormous position mannequin, however I’ve by no means actually in contrast myself to her,” Corpuz mentioned. “Like I mentioned, I by no means actually thought I would get this far.”
Sunday, nevertheless, was proof that Corpuz’s journey deserved a becoming outcome, that each one the work she’d put in was coalescing right into a historic second for her, even when she by no means anticipated it.
“It was sensible golf,” Corpuz’s caddie, Jay Monahan, advised ESPN. “That is one factor she’s superb at. I do not actually have to assist it that a lot. I imply, she’s simply good at taking part in the course like she must.”
The ultimate spherical started with Corpuz 1 shot again of Japan’s Nasa Hataoka. After producing two bogeys and three birdies on the entrance 9 and making the flip tied with Hataoka at 7 below, Corpuz steadied the ship on the again 9, keeping off onerous expenses from not simply Hataoka but additionally England’s Charley Hull, who shot a final-round-low 66.
As soon as Corpuz birdied the tenth gap to take a 1-stroke lead, she didn’t look again, including birdies on 14 and 15 to cement the outcome that made her the primary American to safe her first win at a U.S. Ladies’s Open since Hilary Lunke in 2003.
“I really feel like every part that is occurred this yr has sort of ready me for this second,” Corpuz mentioned. “Telling myself I belong out right here, I am adequate to compete. That is simply been what I have been telling myself for the previous two years.”
Very similar to her even-keeled demeanor that by no means wavered all week, Corpuz’s sport was sound all through. Not often did she ever stray from the fairways — she hit 43 of 56 for the week — and paired that with 2.77 strokes gained on approaches, second greatest within the discipline.
Her placing was significantly stellar on Sunday, as she made 4 putts of 10 toes or extra, doubling what she had made all week from that vary. That side of her sport has improved dramatically since she arrived at USC in 2016. As a Trojan, she led the ladies’s staff with a 71.57 stroke common and was named a first-team All-American.
“She’s a generationally nice iron participant and ball striker,” Justin Silverstein, her coach at USC, advised ESPN in a telephone name Sunday. “This week has been a whole lot of what we noticed in faculty. When it is proper it appears to be like like a online game.”
She turned professional in 2021, the identical yr she represented america within the Curtis Cup, and although she had but to win a significant or an LPGA event, her efficiency had been trending upward in 2023. On the yr’s first two majors, Corpuz completed tied for fifteenth and tied for fourth. So far as Silverstein was involved, it was solely a matter of time earlier than all of it got here collectively.
“It is no shock at this golf course that she’s excelling,” Silverstein mentioned of his considering in the beginning of the week. “She’s constructed for main championships.”
Heading into the week, Silverstein mentioned he felt Pebble Seashore offered a perfect golf course and setup for Corpuz. The small greens would intensify her correct ballstriking, whereas the fairways had been simply large sufficient that she might dwell throughout the boundaries if she hit anyplace near her fee of 85% of fairways this season.
The poa annua grass on the greens is a well-recognized placing floor to Corpuz, who performed on related grasses each rising up and in faculty. The truth is, as Silverstein identified, Corpuz nonetheless does a lot of her taking part in and training at Southern California golf programs with similarities to Pebble.
Corpuz’s success goes past her ballstriking. She has additionally labored extensively with Invoice Nelson, a psychological efficiency coach for LPGA gamers. As Silverstein identified, Nelson and Corpuz have hung out engaged on not simply visualization but additionally respiratory strategies and even controlling her stroll from shot to shot in order that she stays calm and composed all through.
“I spoke with [Nelson] a bit this morning simply to attempt to relax somewhat,” Corpuz mentioned. “For me I get somewhat fast, so I actually simply tried to gradual every part down and benefit from the second.”
As Corpuz stepped as much as the ultimate gap on Sunday, the outcome now not in query, her regular composure and tempo remained. However after she hit her final fairway of the week with one other correct drive, she started strolling down the 18th fairway towards the rousing cheers and trophy that awaited her and allowed herself to smile. It was lastly time to benefit from the second.
