{"id":45764,"date":"2026-08-03T08:14:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T08:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/45764\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T08:14:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T08:14:18","slug":"japans-shiho-kuwaki-wins-first-major-title-at-womens-british-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/45764\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan\u2019s Shiho Kuwaki wins first major title at Women\u2019s British Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Shiho Kuwaki celebrates with the trophy after winning the Women’s British Open in Lytham St Annes, England on Sunday.Jon Super\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Shiho Kuwaki became the fifth Japanese player in the last three years to win a major Sunday when she outlasted Esther Henseleit of Germany with a par on the second playoff hole to win the Women\u2019s British Open at Royal Lytham & St. Annes.<\/p>\n

Kuwaki closed with a 1-under 70 and looked like a winner as she waited in the scoring room to see if anyone could match her 5-under 279. Henseleit holed a 40-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole for a 70 to force only the second playoff since the Women\u2019s British Open became a major in 2001.<\/p>\n

Kuwaki saved par from the fairway after a tee shot into deep rough on the 18th in the playoff and Henseleit missed a 15-foot birdie putt for the win. On the 18th again, Henseleit drove under a gorse bush, chipped out and couldn\u2019t make par. Kuwaki two-putted for par from 30 feet.<\/p>\n

Kuwaki, a 23-year-old with two wins on the Japan LPGA this year, followed major champions Miyu Yamashita, Mao Saigo, Ayaka Furue and Yuka Saso since 2024.<\/p>\n

PGA Tour<\/p>\n

Michael Thorbjornsen made a 26-foot birdie putt on his last hole for a 7-under 63 and a two-shot victory in the Rocket Classic on Sunday for his first PGA Tour title.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old Thorbjornsen sealed his spot in the FedEx Cup playoffs after rolling into the Motor City at No. 69 in the standings. The top 70 advance to the postseason after next week\u2019s Wyndham Championship. He also earned a spot in the Masters for the first time next April.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s the eighth first-time winner this season on the PGA Tour and the second straight, following Jackson Koivun\u2019s victory last week in the 3M Open.<\/p>\n

Xander Schauffele (65) briefly led during the final round and finished second, two shots back. Davis Riley (70) was another stroke behind in third, falling out of the lead with four bogeys.<\/p>\n

PGA Tour Champions<\/p>\n

Zach Johnson opened with three straight birdies and closed with a 7-under 65 for a two-shot victory over Stewart Cink in the inaugural Portugal Invitational. <\/p>\n

Johnson won for the fourth time in his rookie season on the 50-and-older circuit, and it was his third Champions title in his last four starts.<\/p>\n

Cink, who closed with a 68, remains atop the Charles Schwab Cup standings. Johnson and Cink have combined to win eight of the 18 tournaments this year on the PGA Tour Champions.<\/p>\n

Padraig Harrington closed with a 70 and finished third in his eighth consecutive week playing the PGA Tour, PGA Tour Champions and European tour.<\/p>\n

Other tours<\/p>\n

Rory Franssen of Scotland played bogey-free Sunday for a 5-under 67 and won the Infortar Estonian Challenge by three shots over Andrew Wilson for his first title on the European tour\u2019s developmental circuit. … Dayeon Lee closed with a 3-under 69 for a one-shot victory in the Aurora World Championship for her first title this year on the Korea LPGA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Shiho Kuwaki celebrates with the trophy after winning the Women’s British Open in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2098,2082,2099,1443,199,195,2100,2097,2074,2088,2089,2084,2075,2073,2094,374,2093,2087,2081,2111,2076,2077,2086,2083,375,899,2101,2079,2106,2107,2109,2104,2108,2102,2105,1979,1106,2092,2090,2091,2103,1150,2095,2096,2085,2080,2078,2110],"class_list":["post-45764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bmw-championship","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-bmw-championship","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}