Shiho Kuwaki stood inside the clubhouse, heart pounding, watching the 18th green through a window. She had just finished her round with a one-under-par 70 — good enough to sit at five under overall. But Esther Henseleit of Germany still had one hole left to play. And then, from 45 feet away, Henseleit rolled her putt into the cup. The crowd gasped. Suddenly, it was sudden death.
That birdie forced a playoff at the AIG Women's Open on Sunday at Royal Lytham & St Annes in England. For a moment, it looked like Henseleit might steal the win. But the playoff had other plans. On the first extra hole, both players made par. On the second, Henseleit's drive ricocheted off a course marshal and flew into a gorse bush — a prickly wild plant. She could not get the ball back into play, and when she failed to save par, Kuwaki needed only two putts to clinch victory.
The prize was £1.11 million and one of women's golf's biggest trophies. Kuwaki, a 25-year-old from Japan, had five previous wins — all on her home professional tour. This was her first major championship, achieved in only her second Women's Open appearance.
"I just can't believe it," Kuwaki said afterward, wearing a mint-green top and a luminous green golf ball that matched. "To be on a stage like this is an honour and every hole I was just focused on shot by shot. I just tried to enjoy it as much as I could."
She becomes the fourth Japanese player to win the Women's Open, and the second in a row following Ayaka Watanabe's win last year. "It's an amazing feeling to win again as a Japanese player," Kuwaki said. "I hope as team Japan we can continue to light up the golf world."
The day had been packed with twists. For most of Sunday, the big question was whether anyone could catch Yealimi Noh of the United States, who held a three-stroke lead entering the final round — a lead she never relinquished after 54 holes before. But Noh stumbled on the back nine and finished one shot behind Kuwaki and Henseleit, making her the first player in tournament history to hold a three-shot lead after three rounds and still not win.
Henseleit, who will represent Europe at the Solheim Cup in September, said she was proud of how she handled herself. "Very happy with how I gave myself the opportunity to win today," she said, though she acknowledged the bad break on the playoff. "Just got a bit unlucky on the second play-off hole there."
As the sun set over the Lancashire coast, Kuwaki lifted the trophy — a Japanese player lighting up the golf world, one shot at a time.