How a Star Wars quote helped LPGA pro win her first major

It was a ton of golf — and a ton of good golf — that defined Ayaka Furue’s 2024 entering this week. No pro had played better in 2024 and not yet won. Top 10s in half her events. No LPGA pro had played more golf than Furue, either. Sixteen starts out of 17 events. Finally, it all paid off Sunday in France as the 24-year-old triumphed for her first major at the Evian Championship. 

She had built up as many miles as anyone this year, playing in basically every LPGA tournament this season. She was in Florida in January, Asia in February, then all across America throughout the spring. Florida to California, back to Texas. The LPGA has just crash-landed in Europe for the next few weeks, and its most active-player showed no fatigue in France, going the first 46 holes without a bogey. 

But that’s when things started to get interesting. Furue’s three-shot lead was eliminated by a charging Stephanie Kyriacou, in search of her own first career major. Throughout the final round, they were joined by a couple others — Lauren Coughlin and Patty Tavitanakit. The latter played from the group ahead, torching the course at the Evian Resort, making six birdies in her first 15 holes, shooting a buzzing 63. 

It was right around then that a recent hobby of Furue’s grabbed her attention. Yes, on the 69th hole of a major championship, her mind went to Star Wars. 

“I became a Star Wars fan like a month ago,” she said Sunday night. “I love the sentence with, May the force be with you. Then I believe that sentence on 15th hole. I just — the sentence came up in my mind and I was just keep going on with that quote, yeah.”

If only she warned the competition. 

Furue was the force that closed the Evian, making birdie on 14, 15 and 16 to tie Kyriacou for the lead. Furue and her caddie had approached the day with a score of 6-under in mind. At that point, she was four deep on the afternoon, and when Tavitanakit made eagle to reach 18 under from the group ahead, it became clear their target was exactly what they’d need to win it outright. 

The 18th tee ball found the first cut, and the second shot found the green. She could two-putt for birdie to send the tournament to a three-way playoff, or she could end it in one stroke. 

“It was just a little hook and then straight. Just down in the bowl,” her caddie, Michael Scott said later, surely making it sound easier than it really was. But when her ball dropped right into the center of the cup, perhaps it really was as easy as he made it sound.

A few minutes later, a different force surrounded her. That of a champagne shower courtesy of her closest friends.