Miyu Yamashita held off a Charley Hull charge to land her first career major and become the 2025 AIG Women’s Open Champion.
The 24-year-old from Osaka celebrated her birthday on Saturday and earned the best possible belated gift courtesy of a final-round 70, finishing two shots clear at the summit.
Hull could hardly have done more to end her own wait for a major title, five birdies applying serious pressure on the leader and raising the noise levels around Royal Porthcawl.
But back-to-back bogeys on 16 and 17 dented her ambitions and Yamashita, who has led since Friday morning, kept her nearest challenger at arm’s length with three birdies of her own and a succession of nerveless putts to save pars.
Yamashita is the 14th consecutive different Champion and the third Japanese golfer to lift this trophy, following in the footsteps of Ayako Okamoto and Hinako Shibuno.
Hull shared second, her fourth runner-up finish in a major, with the fast-finishing Minami Katsu after both carded three-under-par 69s.
Yamashita and Hull were playing in separate groups but the race to be crowned Champion soon became a two-horse one.
Yamashita briefly shared the lead with her playing partner in the final pairing, A Lim Kim, who birdied the second, but a turning point came at the fourth when the Japanese birdied and Kim recorded her second straight bogey, putting three shots between them.
It was around this time, two groups in front, that Hull began to make her move. Birdies at five and six got her moving and a superb uphill putt on the par-3 eighth took her to within one of the lead, Yamashita having missed a four-footer for birdie at the fifth.
But not for the first time in this Championship, when it looked like the tide might be turning against Yamashita, she responded.
She rolled in a five-footer after a brilliant tee shot at eight and followed up with another birdie at nine, two-putting from the front edge of the vast green to head to the turn at 12-under-par, three shots clear.
Blows continued to be traded down the stretch. Hull got to within a shot again with birdies at 12, her third in succession at a par-3, and 14, just the fourth on the hole all day.
The 25-foot putt at the latter had her hordes of fans daring to dream. No-one has ever won a women’s major from more than 10 shots back at halfway – Hull was 11 adrift at that stage – and their belief in that run ending would have grown when Yamashita found a fairway bunker at the 13th.
But a clutch 15-footer saved par for the leader, keeping her narrowly in front, and she could begin to breathe more easily when Hull found trouble at 16.
A visit to a bunker, then the rough, was followed by Hull going through the back of the green. She ultimately did well to get away with a bogey, draining a 20-footer, but received another blow when she dropped a further shot on the penultimate hole.
Yamashita largely avoided similar blemishes. At 14, an uncharacteristically lax birdie putt left her with a tricky six-footer, which found the heart of the cup.
Her only blip came at 17, a bogey dropping her to 11-under, but she approached the last needing bogey or better to add her name to the trophy.
No-one had double bogeyed on the par-5 18th all week and Yamashita was never in danger of breaking the trend, a close-range putt sealing her par and the trophy.
Having been laser-focused for four days, only then did the emotions show. Tears flowed and Yamashita was mobbed by her compatriots in the field, who ran on to the green spraying bottles of champagne.
They were justified celebrations after a remarkably consistent four days from the new Champion, who delivered a pacesetting masterclass over the weekend.
Paula Martin Sampedro sealed the Smyth Salver in style with a brilliant Sunday 68, the best round of the day.
The 19-year-old Spaniard backed up her Women’s Amateur Championship success with another piece of silverware after responding superbly to back-to-back opening bogeys.
Five birdies on the spin between 11 and 15 were followed by another at 18 as she conquered the back nine in 30, finishing inside the top 10 after a round her playing partner, defending Champion Lydia Ko, called ‘amazing’ and ‘unbelievable’.
Leona Maguire’s week ended in disappointment with a seven-over 79 – aided by a triple bogey-eight on the ninth – left her sharing 63rd place on +11.
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