Dream Come True: Corpuz Captures 2023 U.S. Women's Open
The 25-year-old Hawaiian joins Michelle Wie as a major champion. Plus, notes on Sunday feats, the Pebble width war, legends say goodbye in different ways, NBC's strong showing and a weekend wrap.
As one Hawaiian retires another rises.
While Allisen Corpuz is too young to remember peak Michelle Wie or even to have played any LPGA Tour golf with the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open champion, the two women now stand as Hawaii’s most accomplished golfers. Corpuz posted a final round 69 to win the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open by three strokes over Charley Hull and Jiyai Shin.
In fourth were 36-hole leader Bailey Tardy and 54-hole leader Nasa Hataoka.
Corpuz enjoyed an amateur golf career that pointed to bigger things, including a 2021 Curtis Cup appearance. But the second year pro she joined elite company in names like Annika Sorenstam and Laura Davies in making her first professional victory a major. And winning at Pebble Beach meant something else.
“My mind is racing,” said Corpuz, the first to win a women’s major title at Pebble Beach. “Like I said yesterday, this is really a dream come true. It was something I had dreamed of, but at the same time kind of just never really expected it to happen.”
Ten one-putts in the final round never hurts. A 16-footer for par on the par-3 12th was key, but so were birdie putts inside 10 feet at the difficult 10th, 14th and 15th to play the final 11 holes in one under par as all but Hull, rallying with a stellar final day 66, faded down the stretch. Corpuz finished the tournament as the only player to post under par scores all four days.
“When I watch golf on TV it makes it so much more interesting to know the course, and I think it helped to get us a lot of viewers this week,” Corpuz said. “Especially just knowing the history. Tiger just absolutely annihilated this place [in 2000]. Yeah, it's really special. Twenty, 30 years from now, I think just the fact that it’s a U.S. Open means a lot to me, but knowing that it’s at Pebble makes it even sweeter.”
After a 242-yard drive down the center of 18 fairway, Corpuz could rest easy. Upon making a two-footer for par to claim the Mickey Wright medal and Harton Semple Trophy, Corpuz celebrated with caddie, Jay Monahan (no relation to the PGA Tour Commish) and was met by her parents and longtime USGA committee member and rules official Mary Bea Porter-King, who worked the final round at the 5th green and once ran the Hawaii State Junior Golf Association that helped produce the likes of Wie and Corpuz.
“My goal with the Hawaii State Junior Golf Association was to provide more playing opportunities for junior golfers in Hawaii,” said Porter-King, a former USGA Executive Committee member. “As one of our HSJGA alumni retires (Wie West), another one, rises to the top.”
Not long after the victory was sealed, Corpuz received a congratulatory Tweet from former President and fellow Punahou School graduate Barack Obama:
Full final round highlights:
Corpuz By The Numbers
Corpuz hit 12 of 14 fairways Sunday
She hit 11 of 18 greens
She took 26 putts
2nd in strokes gained approach for the week (47/72 GIR) and 1st in proximity 28’1”)
Gained 5.102 strokes putting (6th)
1 three putt for the week (11th hole, round 3)
Played the par 4’s -6, the par 3’s -2 and the par 5’s -1 😲
In her fifth U.S. Women’s Open start, her career-best finish was a tie for 24th at the 2022 championship
Corpuz shared the 54-hole lead at the Chevron Championship in The Woodlands, Texas, only to finish tied for fourth with a final-round 74.
In two LPGA Tour seasons she has five career top 10’s, including a solo second.
She is the 22nd player to become a first-time winner at the U.S. Women’s Open
Corpuz is the 20th first-time major champion in the last 21 contested.
She is the first American since Brittany Lang (2016) to win the U.S. Women’s Open.
She is the second USC alum to win a women’s major, joining Sophia Popov (2020 AIG Women’s Open)
She crosses the $3 million mark in official career earnings with the $2 million winner’s check ($3,202,444)
Other Notable Sunday Performances
In Gee Chun, the 2015 champion, recorded the only hole-in-one of the week with an 8-iron on the 154-yard fifth. It is the 33rd known ace in a U.S. Women’s Open.
Qualifier Jenny Coleman was 19 strokes better on Sunday by going from a third-round 87 to a 68.
2016 champion Brittany Lang was 10 strokes lower (80-70).
Italy’s Benedetta Moresco took low-amateur honors by one stroke over her Southeastern Conference rival Aine Donegan, of the Republic of Ireland. The University of Alabama senior finished at 8-over 296. Donegan, a junior at Louisiana State University, posted a final round 77.
Bailey Tardy (T-4) was the only qualifier to finish among the top 10 scorers and ties to earn an exemption into next year’s U.S. Women’s Open
Width War
