Tough test? Not for Mao Saigo, who enters the CPKC Women’s Open mix with a record-breaking 61

CALGARY – There’s no doubt that golf requires immense physical skill to play at the highest level.

When we mere mortals watch the pros, we marvel at their strength, hand-eye coordination, and ability to repeat a swing over and over. Especially in this age of power, we assume that the best players have to be big, tall, and fit. We’re inundated with stats like ball speed and carry distance on TV, and we know that the pros are constantly chasing every last yard, both in the gym and in the equipment trailer.

And then Mao Saigo, a 5-foot-10, 125-pound LPGA Tour debutant from Japan, shoots an 11-under-par 61 at Earl Grey Golf Course in Calgary. Until Saturday at the CPKC Women’s Open, the score had never been lower than 68. And then we realize once again that golf is so much more than that.

“This is the busiest week I’ve had all week,” said the standard-bearer leading Saigo’s group after changing the player’s score again following her kick-in birdie on the 17th hole.

Saigo is clearly exceptionally skilled. She has a compact swing that helped her hit 16 of the 18 greens on Saturday, and she enjoyed one of those rare putting rounds where the ball consistently found the bottom of the hole. In fact, she used her flatstick just 24 times, including once from the fringe, which resulted in yet another holed putt.

But on this day, Saigo’s spirit may have been her most powerful weapon.

“When I think about the score, I get nervous, so I try not to think about the score,” she said through an interpreter. “I never set a target score and I always try to hit the best shot. So today I kept the same attitude, and that contributed to today’s score.”

Anyone who plays golf regularly knows that such a formula is simple in sound alone. Actually playing a round of golf, one shot at a time, as the cliché goes, is as difficult as any double-breaker. Who among us hasn’t gone into a match with enthusiasm, started thinking about a number, and promptly imploded? It happens to the pros, too. When Rory McIlroy was way ahead and set Hamilton Golf and Country Club alight in the final round of the 2019 RBC Canadian Open, he let his thoughts wander to the possibility of hitting 59. Two bogeys on the way home shattered that dream.

“Competitive golf is played primarily on a five-inch course, the space between your ears,” Bobby Jones once said of the brain.

So it’s a big deal when a golfer can stay in the moment and never look ahead while putting together a record-breaking round. That’s how the best play their best. They have no idea how many strokes under par they were until they sign their scorecard. Often a low scorer has been asked by the press to describe a bunch of birdies and they can’t remember all the details.

“When I made that par putt on the last hole, I realized I had just played the best golf of my life,” Saigo said.

18-HOLE TOURNAMENT RECORD.#CPKCVrouwenOpen | #CPKCWO photo.twitter.com/Dv6xvv6SZk

— CPKC Women Open (@cpkcwomensopen) July 27, 2024

Saigo’s 61 — a CPKC Women’s Open best — included nine birdies and a hole-out eagle on the par-4 10th. It was her best round of the season by six strokes and moved her up 40+ spots on the leaderboard to a tie for third place, five strokes behind leader Haeran Ryu. It also came after Thursday and Friday rounds of 73-74, neither of which included a birdie. Funny play, golf and a scenario reminiscent of Swede Carl Pettersson, who entered the weekend on the number one spot at the 2010 RBC Canadian Open and then shot 60 in the first group on Saturday to move into contention. Unlike Pettersson, who won that Open at Toronto’s St. George’s G&CC, Saigo didn’t spend her Friday afternoon drinking beers while watching the cut line.

“Because my shots were very consistent, I found it very easy today, but yesterday and the day before I found this course very difficult,” Saigo said.

Sure, conditions were calmer Saturday than the tournament’s first two days, but Earl Grey still packs a punch of rough and tough pins. It’s nearly 6,900 yards, though shorter than Calgary’s, and Saigo averages just 260 yards off the tee. Brooke Henderson, who posted her first under-par round of the week with a 69, said she could see how someone could get into a groove, but noted that the host course is still tough and you have to play smart to score well.

“I hope I can do it tomorrow,” said the Canadian fan favorite.

As for Saigo, she needs another low round to challenge for the tournament trophy on Sunday, with Ryu rolling to a third-round 64 and winners like Rose Zhang, Jennifer Kupcho, Hannah Green and Lilia Vu also in the mix. True to her mantra, however, Saigo isn’t thinking about a score.

“I always reset, no matter what I shoot,” she said. “That attitude is not going to change. I reset myself and play tomorrow.”

Then she went to the putting green and hit balls six feet.