Yuka Saso made another historic milestone after reaching the highest ranking of a Filipino golfer when she officially reached the top five of the Rolex World Rankings on its latest release on Monday.
The 20-year-old Olympian has been lingering for the past few weeks at Nos. 6 and 7. She then slipped to the latter spot prior to this week despite a decent finish at tied-19th at the Shoprite Classic.
Nonetheless, Saso bounced back big time and almost took a solo third spot at the conclusion of the Founders Cup just the other day. Her shared fourth place finish ultimately gave her 16.74 points, which was enough to put her at world No. 5 for the moment.
USA’s Nelly Korda kept her place atop the rankings despite the resurgence of South Korea’s Ko Jin-Young, who is on fire after a runner-up finish in Shoprite and the win in Founders.
Bianca Pagdanganan, on the other hand, maintained her place at 163rd despite not participating in any tournament during the week. She previously climbed to the said ranking after a t-27th finish at Shoprite, gaining some valuable points after missing the cut in NW Arkansas.
Veteran Dottie Ardina was the biggest gainer among the Filipinos after her strong finish at the Founders Cup saw her zoom to no. 254 in the world. She is 16 places higher than last week and just four notches lower than her best ranking this year at 250th.
Saso will be taking a rest the next two weeks. She will not compete when the LPGA Tour flies to Busan, South Korea for the BMW Ladies Open on October 21. Pagdanganan and Ardina are on the reserves list of the said tournament.
