‘Thought I was going to drown:’ Chevron winner’s celebration takes scary turn

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.”

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 leaped 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.”

The 72nd hole at the 2025 Chevron Championship was filled with drama and tragedy.

Jutanugarn arrived at the final hole likely needing a par to win the tournament.

She pushed her tee shot to the right of a tree and then, after a discussion with her caddie, elected to take the pond out of play by hitting her approach onto the green and letting it bound off the grandstand that sits just behind the green. That decision appeared to leave Jutanugarn with what looked like a manageable up-and-down for birdie to lock up the win. But Jutanugarn barely touched the ball on her attempted chip. After the near-whiff, Jutanugarn chipped onto the green and two-putted for bogey to fall back into a tie with Kim and Yin at seven under.

Saigo and Duncan then arrived at the 18th and both made birdie to get into the playoff.

In the playoff, Yin held the advantage after hitting a brilliant second shot that just barely carried the dock and held the green to give her a good look for eagle. Saigo, Kim and Jutanugarn were greenside in two while Duncan laid up.

It looked like multiple players would have a good chance to make birdie, but more 18th-hole chaos ensued.

Yim hammered her eagle putt past the hole and missed the comeback birdie attempt to get in with par. Jutanugarn’s birdie attempt horsehoed around the hole and lipped out. Duncan didn’t have a great look at birdie. Kim missed her attempt, which ceded the floor to Saigo, the 2024 Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year winner, with a three-footer for birdie and the championship.

Saigo calmly rolled in the putt and let out an exhale, having just carded the biggest win of her young career.

All that was left was to take the plunge into the pond, wade back to the dock and start her life as a major champion.

With that swim complete, Mao Saigo, a rising star, now sets her sights on bigger goals than taming the pond at The Club at Carlton Woods.

“I still have four more majors to go, and I want to shoot for No. 1 in the world, Saigo said. “I will do my best in the remaining four majors.”