Miyu Yamashita’s first name means “beautiful dream” in Japanese.
On Sunday, she made her own dream a reality with a 2-under final round 70 to capture the AIG Women’s Open at Royal Porthcawl in Wales.
Her four-day total of 11-under put her two shots clear of Minami Katsu of Japan and crowd favorite Charley Hull of England, who made a mid-round charge before faltering down the stretch.
The victory gave Yamashita, 24, her first major title and her first win on the LPGA Tour, which she joined this year.
“This had been a goal of mine, something I’ve worked towards my whole life, a dream you could say,” Yamashita said. “It’s been the result of hard work every single day, making changes, making improvements, and to be able to do it now and call myself a champion is a very special thing.”
Starting the day with a one-shot lead over A Lim Kim of Korea, Yamashita played nearly flawless golf, carding three birdies to one bogey in blustery conditions along the Bristol Channel. Her lone hiccup came on the stout par-4 17th hole, by which point her victory was all but sealed.
The steady Sunday showing stood in contrast to Yamashita’s third-round at Porthcawl, when she struggled with her driver en route to a 2-over 74. Whatever swing glitch ailed her, she corrected it after a long Saturday evening range session with her father, who serves as her instructor.
“After the round, we did go to the practice range, and it still wasn’t quite feeling as I thought it should be,” Yamashita said. “When we got home, we were together, we look through some of the finer details on the swing, found some points to improve and today it felt a lot better just from the get go.”
The Yamashita of Sunday would have looked familiar to fans in her home country, where she was a force on the JLPGA. Between 2020 and 2024, Yamashita won 13 times on that circuit, and was the leading money winner and Player of the Year in 2022 and 2023. In 2024, Yamashita represented Japan in the Olympics, finishing fourth at Le Golf National in France. She earned her LPGA Tour card in 2025 by winning the Q-Series last fall.
For all her past success, Yamashita was treading in untested waters Sunday, playing with the lead for the first time in a major. And she had a big name stalking her in Hull, who drew within one shot of Yamashita with a birdie on the par-4 14th. Along with the crowd, momentum seemed to be on Hull’s side. But back-to-back bogey’s on 16 and 17 derailed the fiery Englishwoman, who has now earned the uneasy honor of finishing runner-up four times in majors. As Hull fell back, Yamashita held steady with a series of clutch par putts heading down the stretch. When her clinching putt dropped on the 18th, Yamashita broke into tears and was surrounded in celebration by fellow Japanese players Minami Katsu, Rio Takeda, Ayaka Furue and Mao Saigo, who also won her first major this year at the Chevron Championship.
Yamashita cited that win as motivation.
“It was amazing,” Yamashita said. “So great to see Saigo win earlier this year and just kind of push me a little bit harder.”
On a leaderboard filled with international names, the highest American finisher was Megan Khang in T6. Nelly Korda, who has spent that past 17 months atop the Rolex Rankings, closed out the tournament with a 2-over 75 for a T36 and his projected to lose her top spot in the rankings Jeeno Thitikul of Thailand.
