---
title: "Shiho Kuwaki won the Womens British Open on the second playoff hole"
description: "Kuwaki, 23, of Japan, took her first major on Sunday at Royal Lytham and St Annes, beating Esther Henseleit of Germany in sudden death. Both finished 72 holes at 5 under par, 279, and both shot 70 in the final round. Henseleit only got there by holing a 40-foot putt for birdie on the last."
category: "Sports"
category_url: https://herald.la/category/sports
author: "Hana Nakamura"
published: 2026-08-02T19:53:35.000Z
updated: 2026-08-02T19:53:35.000Z
canonical: https://herald.la/article/shiho-kuwaki-won-the-womens-british-open-on-the-second-playoff-hole
tags: ["golf", "womens-golf", "aig-womens-open", "shiho-kuwaki"]
---
# Shiho Kuwaki won the Womens British Open on the second playoff hole

Kuwaki, 23, of Japan, took her first major on Sunday at Royal Lytham and St Annes, beating Esther Henseleit of Germany in sudden death. Both finished 72 holes at 5 under par, 279, and both shot 70 in the final round. Henseleit only got there by holing a 40-foot putt for birdie on the last.

Shiho Kuwaki won her first major championship on Sunday, beating Esther Henseleit on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff at the Women's British Open, [ESPN reported](https://www.espn.com/golf/story/_/id/49513981/shiho-kuwaki-wins-women-british-open-second-playoff-hole).

Kuwaki, 23, is from Japan. Henseleit is from Germany. Both finished 72 holes at 5 under par, a total of 279, and both closed with a round of 70.

The championship was played at Royal Lytham and St Annes, on the Lancashire coast in England.

## How the playoff actually went

It is worth getting the order right, because the shot everyone will remember was not the winning one.

Henseleit forced the playoff by holing a 40-foot putt for birdie on the 18th. That is the shot that made a playoff exist.

On the first extra hole, Kuwaki was in trouble. She hit a wedge to three feet and saved par. Henseleit then missed a 15-foot putt for birdie that would have won it.

So Kuwaki survived the first hole rather than winning it. She took the second with a par.

## What the round was worth

Five under par over four rounds is not a low number by the standards of modern professional golf, and at a links course in August that is the point. Royal Lytham is a course where the wind decides how hard the golf is, and a winning score near par usually means it decided to make things difficult.

Two players shooting the same 72-hole total and the same final round, then splitting on a three-foot par putt and a missed 15-footer, is about as narrow as a major gets.

## What we are not saying

ESPN's report names Yealimi Noh and Charley Hull among the notable players in the field but does not give their finishing positions, and we could not verify them elsewhere. So we are not printing a leaderboard beyond the top two.

We also could not verify the prize money, whether Royal Lytham has hosted this championship before, or several anniversary and record claims circulating alongside the result. They are absent above for that reason and not because they are necessarily wrong.

## Sources

- [Kuwaki wins British Open on second playoff hole](https://www.espn.com/golf/story/_/id/49513981/shiho-kuwaki-wins-women-british-open-second-playoff-hole)