TOKYO - Japan's Shiho Kuwaki set her sights Wednesday on further LPGA Tour success after claiming her full membership from next season with a mature performance to win the 50th edition of the Women's British Open.
Having played at three majors on the LPGA Tour last season, Kuwaki seized the title on her fourth major appearance of this year via a playoff on Sunday, catapulting her from 46th to 16th in the latest world rankings.
"I watched back my performance last night," Kuwaki told a press conference in Tokyo. "Looking objectively for the first time, I realized the seriousness of the matter and what a tournament I won. I thought I was managing to play really calmly."
Kuwaki has been dominant on the domestic LPGA Tour of Japan this season, winning twice and leading the points race.
Her appearance at the Japan National Press Club came exactly a year after her compatriot Miyu Yamashita also faced the home media following her maiden major win in Britain.
With few leaderboards visible on the Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Course in the northwest of England, a country Kuwaki associates with "strong wind," the 23-year-old focused on little beyond her next shot.
"It's a links course with a hard fairway, which made it hard to calculate how much run the ball was going to get," she said. "It was a difficult course, one where how you tee off could decide the score."
"My tee shots were really steady, I had a high rate of keeping to the fairway and hitting the green (in regulation), and that helped me produce good scores."
At a course known for its 174 strategically positioned bunkers, Kuwaki's meticulous game management belied her relative lack of experience on the tour.
"I was really aware. When there was a bunker on the right, I play a shot that never bends to the right. If they were on both sides, I hit the ball straight, which I'm good at, and was managing it in a way that I'd never hit one into them," she said.
"The pins were sometimes located in enticing areas too, but it was also where the ball would drift away had I made a mistake. It would've been wasteful to drop my score, so I was focused on getting my ball where I could get pars rather than going for birdies."
While claiming her smiling demeanor was not necessarily influenced by her heroine Hinako Shibuno, her fellow Okayama native who won the tournament in 2019, Kuwaki said her colorful outfits, along with the styling of her hair and fingernails, were an expression of her character.
"(The smiles) naturally came out as I savored the fact I was managing to have rounds in a promising position on such a big stage," she said. "Colorful nails and outfits are a source of motivation for me and I see it as a way of expressing myself."
Newly inspired by world No. 1 Nelly Korda after training together with the American during the tournament, Kuwaki overcame a playoff hoodoo after "playing twice and losing both" as a pro.
"It's a real confidence boost to win an overseas major," Kuwaki said. "Conversely, I don't want it to be something that makes me suffer in the future, so I'm putting it behind me. I hope to play with a refreshed mindset from now."
"I will be giving my all at tournaments I can take part in (next year). I believe I'd be able to be in title contention along the way and I want to rack up wins over there."
