‘A dream come true’: Inside Allisen Corpuz’s surprising U.S. Women’s Open win
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Allisen Corpuz plays golf with all the expressiveness of a yogi in meditation. Her emotion-free body language on Sunday at a major is indiscernible from how she looks in a Tuesday practice round. At times, it’s fair to wonder if she even has a pulse.
That demeanor was apparent on Sunday at Pebble Beach — from her first tee shot to her final putt.
When Corpuz finally did hole out on the 18th green, cementing her three-shot victory at the 78th U.S. Women’s Open, her steely exterior finally cracked. Tears flowed down her cheeks as she embraced her caddie and was doused with water by her fellow pros. As Corpuz walked off the green, she grabbed a towel from her bag to dry her face.
“My mind is racing,” she said. “This is really a dream come true.”
With her win at Pebble, Corpuz, who is 25, becomes the first American winner of the U.S. Women’s Open since 2016 and the first U.S. player in 20 years to make the U.S. Women’s Open her first LPGA title. The victory vaults her to the top of the U.S Solheim Cup standings and also makes her the first woman to win a major at Pebble Beach.
Sitting in the press tent with the Harry S. Semple Trophy beside her, Corpuz offered a frank assessment of the biggest win of her young career:
“I never thought I would get this far.”
Corpuz may not have foreseen this victory, but she’d been building toward a moment like this for much of her life.
In the final round, there was little doubt of who was the best player on the golf course. Corpuz began her day with birdies on two of her first three holes to take the outright lead, and she never relinquished it (despite a spirited charge by Charley Hull). She added circles to her card on Nos. 7, 10, 13 and 15, the final of which featured an ever-so-slight fist pump.
“I think that was the moment when I kind of knew,” Corpuz said. “Like, I just need to get home.”
Corpuz had little trouble in that mission. She dropped a shot at the par-3 17th, but with pars on 16 and 18, she put the finishing touches on her maiden major — and LPGA victory — and became the only player to register top-15 finishes in the first three majors of the season.
Source: Golf
