Atin Ito First Filipino Community Newspaper in Ontario
Flanked by her proud parents, 25-year-old Allisen Corpuz hoisted the championship trophy of the 78th US Women’s Open at Pebble Beach, California, making herself the second golfer with Filipino roots to win the coveted plum in the past two years. Her father, Marcos, hails from Ilocos Norte, while her mother May has South Korean ancestry. Japanese-Filipino Yuka Saso also won the US Women’s Open in 2021 at the Olympic Club in San Francisco.
Allisen Corpuz credited her Filipino father on Sunday, July 9 (Monday in Manila), after capturing the major championship in dramatic fashion. “I started (golf) when I was four, five years old. My parents actually live on Kapolei golf course – on the left side… So yeah, my dad has always been a really big golf fan and just got us into it really young,” she said.
Corpuz won $2 million – or approximately ₱111.2 million – for her feat, the biggest paycheck in women’s championship golf in only her second year on the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) tour. She won by three strokes over England’s Charley Hull. She pulled off the feat by being the only player to score four subpar rounds in the fabled course where golfing greats Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Tiger Woods also won the US Open championship.
Former US President Barack Obama, who like her attended, too, Punahou School in Honolulu, congratulated her on Twitter: “You make us all proud and look forward to a round at Kapolei!” referring to the Kapolei Golf Club, a premium championship golf course where Allisen and her parents reside.
Corpuz’s victory is phenomenal as it is only her second year as a professional on the tour in which she has played in 16 tournaments. Previously, she finished tied for fourth at the Chevron Championship, the opening major of the year.
An account in Golf Digest magazine reads: “A golf prodigy, she was a three-time American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) All-American. In 2008, she surpassed (Michelle) Wie as the youngest qualifier in US Women’s Amateur Public Links history at 10 years, three months and nine days, and was featured in The New York Times under the headline “Golf’s Next Wave.”
She earned both her bachelor’s degree and an MBA from University of Southern California (USC), where she made the Women’s Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) All-American first team honors as a senior, leading her team in most number of top-tier finishes. According to USC accounts: “She also earned 2020 WGCA All-American Scholar plaudits (minimum 3.50 Grade Point Average) and was named to the 2020 PAC-12 Spring Academic Honor Roll. Corpuz topped USC with a 71.57 stroke average, the fifth-best in program history.”
The Associated Press story summed it up best: “Allisen Corpuz found herself on the biggest and most beautiful stage in women’s golf and made it look like a stroll on the beach.” Corpuz’s remarks on her extraordinary feat are memorable: “Unreal. This week has just felt like a dream come true.”
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Credit belongs to : www.mb.com.ph
