Chisato Iwai, the 22-year-old rookie from Japan, put together a dominant display of golf on Sunday, leading to her first win on the LPGA Tour at the Mexico Riviera Maya Open at Mayakoba.
Iwai came into the day trailing fellow Jenny Bae by one stroke but quickly erased that on the first hole when she made birdie and Bae made bogey. From there, Iwai never looked back, extending her lead throughout her brilliant front nine.
Iwai made birdies on five of her first six holes, with just six total putts in that stretch. For the round as a whole, Iwai needed just 25 putts to get in with a -6 66. While she slowed as the round went on, going +1 on her final five holes, nobody challenged her as she won by six strokes over Bae at -12 for the week.
The player who came closest was Yahui Zhang, who briefly got to -7 toward the end of the front nine, but bogeyed seven of her last 10 holes to finish T26.
Iwai is part of a class of Japanese rookies that are excelling on the LPGA Tour this year. Her twin sister Akie finished runner up in Los Angeles and Rio Takeda won for the second time at the Blue Bay LPGA. Add in second-year player Mao Saigo’s win at the Chevron Championship, and it is a good time to be a Japanese player on tour. This coming off 2024 where Yuka Saso and Ayaka Furue both won majors.
Iwai joins rookies Takeda and Ingrid Lindblad as rookies to win on tour this year, following a season where no rookies won in 2024. The last time three rookies won this early in a season on tour was 2015, when Sei Young Kim, Hyo Joo Kim and Minjee Lee all won. That is pretty good company to join.
