Miyu Yamashita claimed victory at the 2025 AIG Women’s Open at Royal Porthcawl, closing with a final-round 70 to finish at 277, eleven under par, and secure a two-shot win over England’s Charley Hull and fellow Japanese player Minami Katsu. Yamashita becomes the third player from Japan to win this championship, following in the footsteps of Ayako Okamoto in 1984 and Hinako Shibuno in 2019. She is also the first player since In-Kyung Kim in 2017 to win the AIG Women’s Open having held or shared the lead after both the second and third rounds. Her path to victory began with a 68 on Thursday, followed by a tournament-low 65 on Friday. Although she faltered slightly with a 74 in round three, she maintained her composure on Sunday with a two-under-par finish to seal her maiden major title. Yamashita led by three strokes after the second round and by one heading into the final day.
This win is her first outside the LPGA of Japan, where she has claimed thirteen titles since 2021. In that same period, she has recorded 44 top-three finishes – 41 on the JLPGA and three on the main LPGA circuit. Her previous best finish at the AIG Women’s Open was tied-thirteenth on debut in 2022. She followed that with a T21 finish in 2023 before missing the cut in 2024. Currently ranked fifteenth in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, Yamashita now adds a major championship to her expanding résumé.
Charley Hull recorded her second runner-up finish at the AIG Women’s Open, matching her 2023 performance at Walton Heath. It marks her fourth second-place result in a major and her tenth top-ten overall in such events. Playing in front of a home crowd, Hull closed with a 69 to reach nine under par, a score matched by Minami Katsu, who also shot 69 to share second place. Katsu’s performance was highlighted by a 65 in the third round, the lowest score of Saturday’s play. Just behind them, Rio Takeda and A Lim Kim shared fourth place at seven under par. Takeda opened with a 67 and remained in contention throughout, while Kim’s week included a third-round 67 before a closing 73.
Among the amateurs, Spain’s Paula Martin Sampedro stood out with a tied-eighth finish. This marks the lowest finish by an amateur in the AIG Women’s Open since 2005, when Michelle Wie placed third and Louise Stahle also finished T8. Martin Sampedro also delivered the lowest score of Sunday’s final round. Yamashita’s win extends the current run of first-time major champions at the AIG Women’s Open to thirteen, a streak that began with Stacy Lewis in 2013. It is now the second-longest such sequence in tournament history, trailing only the fourteen straight first-time winners recorded between 1982 and 1996. In total, there have now been 42 different champions of the AIG Women’s Open since the tournament began in 1976.
Royal Porthcawl played significantly tougher on Sunday, with a final-round stroke average of 74.93. The tournament average over four days stood at 73.64. The 1st and 3rd holes tied as the most difficult in round four, each playing to a 4.66 average. Notably, Shannon Tan, playing in the second group of the day, was the only player to birdie either of those two holes in the final round. The 16th emerged as the hardest hole overall across the week, with a cumulative stroke average of 4.51. By contrast, the 18th was the easiest in the final round, averaging 4.52 strokes, while the 9th was the easiest across the championship with a cumulative average of 4.60. Over the course of the week, seven holes played to an average under par, and no player recorded a double bogey or worse on the 7th, 8th or 18th holes in any round.
