Yuka Saso certainly wouldn’t mind following the same script in 2019. The 18-year-old from the Philippines is off to a strong start at SentryWord, carding a seven-under 65 in the first round of stroke play on Monday.

Saso, who produced a two-stroke victory at Keney Park Golf Course in Hartford, Conn., 10 days ago, is three strokes better than Sophia Bae, Nicole Adam and Lei Ye.

The No.24 player in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), Saso produced one of three bogey-free rounds. She registered birdies on Nos. 5, 8, 9, 10, 11 14 and 15, and concluded the day with a deft pitch to two feet to save par. Her score also broke the competitive course record at SentryWorld.

“I wasn’t really thinking about [my win at the Girls PGA],” said Saso, one of six players in the field to compete in this year’s US Women’s Open at the Country Club of Charleston (S.C.). “I’m just trying to get to know the course well. I’m really happy.”

This is Saso’s fourth US Girls’ Junior, but she hasn’t ever advanced past the Round of 32. She did reach the semifinals of the 2016 US Women’s Amateur at Rolling Green Golf Club in Springfield, Pa.

“I am just focusing on what I have to do [on Tuesday],” Saso said. “The next day is my goal.”

RIGHT: Lei Ye trails Saso by three shots. PHOTO: Zhe Ji/Getty Images.

After a weekend that saw 3.02 inches of rain dumped on the property between Friday afternoon and Saturday night, the players were greeted with chamber-of-commerce conditions with temperatures in the low- to mid-70s and winds that generally hovered between eight and 16 mph.

Bae and Adam each took different routes in posting their four-under-par 68s. Bae, 15, of Norwood, N.J., double-bogied the par-4 4th hole before playing her final 14 holes in six-under par. Adam, 17, of Pinehurst, N.C., went out in four-under 32, and came home in even-par 36.

Adam briefly got to five under for the round before suffering consecutive bogies on 12 and 13. She closed her round with a 40-foot birdie on 17.

“That was my best putt of the day,” said Adam, who is planning to attend the University of North Carolina-Wilmington in the fall of 2020.

Bae, a rising high school junior who has already committed to play for Duke University in 2021, birdied three of the four par-5 holes. Her final birdie came on No.17 when she converted a 15-footer.

“I think my putting worked really well on the back nine,” Bae said. “On the front nine, I struggled a little bit, but I came back, so I’m happy.”

Ye, 18, of the People’s Republic of China, who is headed to Stanford this fall and was the runner-up in the 2018 US Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship with partner Ya-Chun Chang, holed a 12-footer for birdie on 18 to post her 68. She said her wedge game from 80 to 100 yards out was strong on Monday, giving her plenty of birdie opportunities.

“Some dropped and some didn’t,” Ye said. “That’s just the way it is.”

- United States Golf Association