The most anxious moment of Mao Saigo’s Chevron Championship-winning Sunday came long after she survived a five-person playoff to claim her first major championship.
The 23-year-old Saigo made the lone birdie in the playoff to defeat Ariya Jutanugarn, Ruoning Yin, Hyo Joo Kim, and Lindy Duncan to secure the title at The Club at Carlton Woods. After prevailing in what was the largest playoff in LPGA major championship history, Saigo jumped into the pond on the 18th hole in celebration.
There was just one problem.
“I’m not really a good swimmer,” Saigo told reporters after her win. “When I went inside, it was deep, and at first, I thought I was going to drown.”
The Leap of a Champion 🏆 pic.twitter.com/K4gXlzerd6
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Saigo didn’t want to go into the pond by herself, so she brought her manager, Rika Arai, and television reporter Mitsuki Katahira. Saigo’s caddie, Jeffrey Snow, and trainers Yonguk Shin and Yonghee Lee leapt into the pond next.
Snow told Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols that he thinks Saigo panicked when her feet couldn’t touch the bottom of the pond. As panic ensued, all three women started grabbing onto the men for assistance as they tried to get back to the dock.
“Every time I broke the surface, I got pulled under again,” Snow told Beth Ann Nichols. “They were trying to grab someone.”
