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Ai Miyazato

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Ai Miyazato
宮里 藍
Miyazato at the 2010 Women's British Open
Personal information
Born (1985-06-19) 19 June 1985 (age 39)
Higashi, Okinawa, Japan
Height5 ft 2 in (1.57 m)
Sporting nationality Japan
ResidenceHigashi, Okinawa, Japan
Career
Turned professional2004
Current tour(s)LPGA of Japan Tour (joined 2004)
LPGA Tour (joined 2006)
Ladies European Tour
Professional wins24
Number of wins by tour
LPGA Tour8
Ladies European Tour2
LPGA of Japan Tour15
Other1
Best results in LPGA major championships
Chevron ChampionshipT15: 2007
Women's PGA C'shipT3: 2006, 2010
U.S. Women's OpenT6: 2009, 2011
Women's British OpenT3: 2009
Achievements and awards
Ladies European Tour
Order of Merit winner		2011

Miyazato Ai (宮里 藍, Miyazato Ai, born 19 June 1985) is a Japanese professional golfer who currently competes on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour and the LPGA of Japan Tour (JLPGA). She was the top-ranked golfer in the Women's World Golf Rankings for three periods of time in 2010.

Early life and amateur career

Miyazato was born in Higashi, Okinawa, Japan. As an amateur in 2003, she won a professional event on the LPGA of Japan Tour – the Dunlop Ladies Open in Miyagi Prefecture, where she was attending high school at the time.

Professional career

In her 2004 rookie season on the JLPGA Tour she won five tournaments. In February 2005, she represented Japan along with Rui Kitada winning the inaugural Women's World Cup of Golf.[1] In 2005, she won six events on the JLPGA tour, and was the #2 ranked player on the JLPGA Tour behind Yuri Fudoh.

In winning the Japan Open Championship at age 20 in 2005, Miyazato became the youngest player on the JLPGA Tour to win a major. Furthering the notion that Miyazato has revived the JLPGA Tour after the retirement of Ayako Okamoto, over 32,000 people, the largest gallery ever to attend a JLPGA event, witnessed the final day of that tournament.

She dominated the 2005 U.S. LPGA Q-School and secured her tour card, enabling her to compete in the 2006 season. She finished under par for four of the five qualifying rounds, and finished 12 strokes ahead of the closest competitor, setting a record for the largest margin of victory.[2] Back in Japan, on 15 December, she played the opening rounds of the Okinawa Open, becoming the first Japanese woman to compete in a domestic men's professional event, although she failed to make the cut for the final rounds.

Miyazato earned her first LPGA Tour win at the 2009 Evian Masters, shooting 14-under par 274 to tie Sophie Gustafson who she then beat on the first playoff hole.[3]

In 2010, she won four of the first nine official tournaments on the LPGA Tour and on 21 June rose to number 1 in the Women's World Golf Rankings. She held the spot for only one week and was replaced by Cristie Kerr who held the spot for three weeks, before Miyazato regained the spot again on 19 July, by a margin of 0.0006 average points.[4]

On 22 August 2010, Miyazato won for the fifth time in 2010 at the Safeway Classic with a two stroke victory over Cristie Kerr and Na Yeon Choi. She regained the number 1 spot in the World Rankings, which had been briefly retaken by Kerr. She gave up the top spot again to Kerr on 25 October.

In 2011, Miyazato won the Ladies European Tour (LET) Order of Merit despite only playing in two events on that tour. The tour has no minimum tournament requirements for membership and her win at the Evian Masters, whose purse is much larger than most LET events, earned her enough to top the list.[5]

On 21 April 2012, Miyazato won the inaugural LPGA Lotte Championship by four strokes over Azahara Muñoz and Meena Lee the victory gives her eight in her LPGA career.

She has endorsements deals with Suntory, Bridgestone Corporation, Japan Airlines, Oakley, Honda, Hisamitsu, Mitsubishi Electric and NTT Docomo.

Her older brothers, Kiyoshi Miyazato and Yūsaku Miyazato are also professional golfers. She is not related to fellow Japanese LPGA Tour player Mika Miyazato.

Professional wins (24)

LPGA Tour (8)

No. Date Tournament Winning score To par Margin of
victory 		Runner(s)-up Winner's
share ($)
1 26 Jul 2009 Evian Masters 69-66-70-69=274 –14 Playoff Sweden Sophie Gustafson 487,500
2 21 Feb 2010 Honda PTT LPGA Thailand 67-67-70-63=267 –21 1 stroke Norway Suzann Pettersen 195,000
3 28 Feb 2010 HSBC Women's Champions 69-71-69-69=278 –10 2 strokes United States Cristie Kerr 195,000
4 2 May 2010 Tres Marias Championship 63-72-71-67=273 –19 1 stroke United States Stacy Lewis 195,000
5 20 Jun 2010 ShopRite LPGA Classic 66-67-64=197 –16 2 strokes South Korea M. J. Hur 225,000
6 22 Aug 2010 Safeway Classic 66-67-72=205 –11 2 strokes South Korea Na Yeon Choi
United States Cristie Kerr 		225,000
7 24 Jul 2011 Evian Masters 68-68-67-70=273 –15 2 strokes United States Stacy Lewis 487,500
8 21 Apr 2012 LPGA Lotte Championship 71-65-70-70=276 –12 4 strokes South Korea Meena Lee
Spain Azahara Muñoz 		255,000

LPGA Tour playoff record (1–0)

No. Year Tournament Opponent(s) Result
1 2009 Evian Masters Sweden Sophie Gustafson Won with birdie on first extra hole

JLPGA Tour (15)

No. Date Tournament Winning score Margin of
victory 		Runner(s)-up
1 28 Sep 2003 Miyagi TV Cup Dunlop Ladies Open (as an amateur) –5 (70-70-71=211) 1 stroke Japan Mari Katayama
Japan Hiroko Yamaguchi
2 7 Mar 2004 Daikin Orchid Ladies –10 (70-66-70=206) 3 strokes Japan Kaori Higo
3 13 Jun 2004 Suntory Ladies Open –11 (69-70-70-68=277) 6 strokes Japan Hiroko Yamaguchi
Japan Toshimi Kimura
4 20 Jun 2004 APiTA Circle K Sunkus Ladies –6 (69-69-72=210) 1 stroke Japan Yuri Fudoh
5 24 Oct 2004 Masters GC Ladies –11 (69-68-68=205) 1 stroke Japan Miho Koga
6 21 Nov 2004 Daio Paper Elleair Ladies Open –14 (66-67-69=202) 3 strokes Japan Chieko Amanuma
Japan Rui Kitada
7 15 May 2005 Vernal Ladies –13 (69-64-70=203) 8 strokes Japan Akiko Fukushima
8 22 May 2005 Chukyo TV Bridgestone Ladies Open –7 (65-74-70=209) Playoff Australia Nikki Campbell
9 21 Aug 2005 New Catapillar Mitsubishi Ladies –10 (66-75-68=209) 3 strokes South Korea Mi-Jeong Jeon
Japan Hiromi Mogi
10 2 Oct 2005 Japan Women's Open Golf Championship –5 (69-69-72-73) 5 strokes Japan Akiko Fukushima
11 30 Oct 2005 Hisako Higuchi IDC Otsuka Kagu Ladies –14 (67-68-67=202) 7 strokes Taiwan Julie Lu
Australia Nikki Campbell
Japan Kaori Higo
Japan Shinobu Moromizato
12 20 Nov 2005 Daio Paper Elleair Ladies Open –12 (69-70-65=204) 5 strokes Japan Shiho Oyama
South Korea Woo-Soon Ko
Japan Kasumi Fujii
13 10 Sep 2006 JLPGA Championship Konica Minolta Cup –6 (70-68-74-70) 3 strokes South Korea Hyun-Ju Shin
14 24 Sep 2006 Miyagi TV Cup Dunlop Ladies Open –2 (70-73-71=214) 3 strokes Japan Shiho Oyama
15 11 Oct 2009 Sankyo Ladies Open –4 (74-70-68=212) 1 stroke Japan Mayu Hattori
South Korea Mi-Jeong Jeon

Tournament in bold denotes major championships in JLPGA Tour.

Other (1)

Results in LPGA majors

Tournament 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Kraft Nabisco Championship DNP T44 T29 T15 T31 69 CUT T33 T56
LPGA Championship DNP DNP T3 CUT CUT DNP T3 CUT
U.S. Women's Open DNP CUT T28 T10 T27 T6 T31 T6
Women's British Open CUT T11 9 T58 5 T3 T9 CUT

DNP = did not play
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied
Green background for a win. Yellow background for a top-10 finish.

LPGA Tour career summary

Year Tournaments
played		 Cuts
made		 Wins 2nds 3rds Top 10s Best
finish		 Earnings
($)		 Money
list rank		 Scoring
average		 Scoring
rank
2004 2 1 0 1 0 1 T2 69,608 n/a 70.20 n/a
2005 6 5 0 0 2 1 T10 102,663 n/a 72.41 n/a
2006 21 19 0 0 1 7 T3 532,053 22 71.22 13
2007 25 19 0 1 2 7 2 788,477 17 73.01 56
2008 23 17 0 0 0 3 T4 410,833 46 72.19 48
2009 22 22 1 2 1 13 1 1,517,149 3 70.33 4
2010 21 18 5 0 1 9 1 1,457,384 6 70.65 7
2011 19 17 1 0 1 6 1 1,007,633 8 71.63 18
2012 7 7 1 2 0 5 1 633,648 3 69.75 2
  • official as of 22 May 2012 [6]

JLPGA prize money

Year Earnings (¥) Rank
2003 1,060,800 116
2004 122,972,349 2
2005 114,377,871 2
2006 58,604,501 10
2007 4,318,305 89
2008 27,892,338 32
2009 46,430,116 14
2010 16,720,000 47
Career 392,376,280 33

References

  1. ^ "Japan Captures Women's World Cup". Golf Channel. Sports Network. 13 February 2005. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
  2. ^ Hack, Damon (5 December 2005). "Golf; Golf's Latest Next Big Thing? She's Already a Star in Japan". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 August 2010.
  3. ^ Pugmire, Jerome (26 July 2009). "Ai Miyazato of Japan wins Evian Masters". USA Today. Associated Press. Retrieved 22 June 2010.
  4. ^ KSDK.com, Miyazato replaces Kerr as women's No. 1 19 July 2010
  5. ^ Ai Miyazato wins money title with a twist
  6. ^ "Ai Miyazato Stats". LPGA. Retrieved 22 May 2012.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ai Miyazato.
Awards
Preceded by World No. 1 Ranked Golfer
21 June 2010 – 27 June 2010 		Succeeded by
Preceded by World No. 1 Ranked Golfer
19 July 2010 – 25 July 2010 		Succeeded by
Preceded by World No. 1 Ranked Golfer
22 August 2010 – 24 October 2010 		Succeeded by

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