Ai Miyazato

Ai Miyazato (宮里 藍, Miyazato Ai, born 19 June 1985) is a former Japanese professional golfer who competed 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 on three occasions in 2010.

Ai Miyazato
宮里 藍
Personal information
Born (1985-06-19) 19 June 1985
Higashi, Okinawa, Japan
Height5 ft 2 in (1.57 m)
Nationality Japan
ResidenceHigashi, Okinawa, Japan
Career
Turned professional2004
Retired2017
Former tour(s)LPGA of Japan Tour
LPGA Tour
Ladies European Tour
Professional wins25
Number of wins by tour
LPGA Tour9
Ladies European Tour2
LPGA of Japan Tour15
Other1
Best results in LPGA major championships
ANA InspirationT15: 2007
Women's PGA C'shipT3: 2006, 2010
U.S. Women's OpenT6: 2009, 2011
Women's British OpenT3: 2009
Evian ChampionshipT15: 2013
Achievements and awards
Ladies European Tour
Order of Merit winner		2011
William and Mousie
Powell Award		2012

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 and won 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 revived the JLPGA Tour after the retirement of Ayako Okamoto, over 32,000 spectators, the largest gallery ever to attend a JLPGA event, witnessed the final round.

At the LPGA Qualifying Tournament in Florida in December 2005, Miyazato easily secured her tour card for the 2006 season. She was under-par in four of the five rounds, and was 12 strokes ahead of the closest competitor, which set 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.

In her fourth season on the LPGA Tour in 2009, Miyazato earned her first win at the Evian Masters in France, defeating Sophie Gustafson at the first hole of a sudden-death playoff.[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 narrow margin of 0.0006 average points.[4]

In August, Miyazato won for the fifth time in 2010 at the Safeway Classic in Oregon, with a two-stroke victory over Kerr and Na Yeon Choi. She regained the top spot in the world rankings, which had been briefly retaken by Kerr, but then gave it up to Kerr on 25 October.

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

In April 2012, Miyazato won her eighth LPGA event at the inaugural LPGA Lotte Championship in Hawaii, four strokes ahead of runners-up Azahara Muñoz and Meena Lee.

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.

On 27 May 2017, Kyodo News Agency reported that Miyazato would retire at the end of the season.[6] Her last tournament was the 2017 Evian Championship.

Miyazato is the first golfer to have achieved the world number one ranking without ever winning a major. Her best finish was third three times.

Professional wins (25)

LPGA Tour (9)
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 Sophie Gustafson 487,500
2 21 Feb 2010 Honda PTT LPGA Thailand 67-67-70-63=267 –21 1 stroke Suzann Pettersen 195,000
3 28 Feb 2010 HSBC Women's Champions 69-71-69-69=278 –10 2 strokes Cristie Kerr 195,000
4 2 May 2010 Tres Marias Championship 63-72-71-67=273 –19 1 stroke Stacy Lewis 195,000
5 20 Jun 2010 ShopRite LPGA Classic 66-67-64=197 –16 2 strokes M. J. Hur 225,000
6 22 Aug 2010 Safeway Classic 66-67-72=205 –11 2 strokes Na Yeon Choi
Cristie Kerr		 225,000
7 24 Jul 2011 Evian Masters 68-68-67-70=273 –15 2 strokes Stacy Lewis 487,500
8 21 Apr 2012 LPGA Lotte Championship 71-65-70-70=276 –12 4 strokes Meena Lee
Azahara Muñoz		 255,000
9 1 Jul 2012 Walmart NW Arkansas Championship 68-68-65=200 –12 1 stroke Mika Miyazato
Azahara Muñoz		 300,000

LPGA Tour playoff record (1–0)

No.YearTournamentOpponent(s)Result
1 2009 Evian Masters Sophie Gustafson Won with birdie on first extra hole

JLPGA Tour (15)
No. Date Tournament Winning score To par Margin
of victory		 Runner(s)-up
1 28 Sep 2003 Miyagi TV Cup Dunlop Ladies Open
(as an amateur)		 70-70-71=211 –5 1 stroke Mari Katayama
Hiroko Yamaguchi
2 7 Mar 2004 Daikin Orchid Ladies 70-66-70=206 –10 3 strokes Kaori Higo
3 13 Jun 2004 Suntory Ladies Open 69-70-70-68=277 –11 6 strokes Hiroko Yamaguchi
Toshimi Kimura
4 20 Jun 2004 APiTA Circle K Sunkus Ladies 69-69-72=210 –6 1 stroke Yuri Fudoh
5 24 Oct 2004 Masters GC Ladies 69-68-68=205 –11 1 stroke Miho Koga
6 21 Nov 2004 Daio Paper Elleair Ladies Open 66-67-69=202 –14 3 strokes Chieko Amanuma
Rui Kitada
7 15 May 2005 Vernal Ladies 69-64-70=203 –13 8 strokes Akiko Fukushima
8 22 May 2005 Chukyo TV Bridgestone Ladies Open 65-74-70=209 –7 Playoff Nikki Campbell
9 21 Aug 2005 New Catapillar Mitsubishi Ladies 66-75-68=209 –10 3 strokes Mi-Jeong Jeon
Hiromi Mogi
10 2 Oct 2005 Japan Women's Open Golf Championship 69-69-72-73=283 –5 5 strokes Akiko Fukushima
11 30 Oct 2005 Hisako Higuchi IDC Otsuka Kagu Ladies 67-68-67=202 –14 7 strokes Julie Lu
Nikki Campbell
Kaori Higo
Shinobu Moromizato
12 20 Nov 2005 Daio Paper Elleair Ladies Open 69-70-65=204 –12 5 strokes Shiho Oyama
Woo-Soon Ko
Kasumi Fujii
13 10 Sep 2006 JLPGA Championship Konica Minolta Cup 70-68-74-70=282 –6 3 strokes Hyun-Ju Shin
14 24 Sep 2006 Miyagi TV Cup Dunlop Ladies Open 70-73-71=214 –2 3 strokes Shiho Oyama
15 11 Oct 2009 Sankyo Ladies Open 74-70-68=212 –4 1 stroke Mayu Hattori
Mi-Jeong Jeon

Tournament in bold denotes major championships in JLPGA Tour.

Other (1)

Results in LPGA majors

Results not in chronological order before 2015.

Tournament20042005200620072008200920102011201220132014
ANA Inspiration T44 T29 T15 T31 69 CUT T33 T56 T55 T67
Women's PGA Championship T3 CUT CUT T3 CUT T6 T15 CUT
U.S. Women's Open CUT T28 T10 T27 T6 T31 T6 T28 T11 CUT
Women's British Open CUT T11 9 T58 5 T3 T9 CUT T26 CUT T45
The Evian Championship ^ T15 CUT
Tournament201520162017
ANA Inspiration T41 T18 T40
Women's PGA Championship T39 T36
U.S. Women's Open T41
Women's British Open CUT CUT CUT
The Evian Championship T38 CUT T32

^ The Evian Championship was added as a major in 2013

  Top 10
  Did not play

CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied

Summary
TournamentWins2nd3rdTop-5Top-10Top-25EventsCuts made
ANA Inspiration0000021312
Women's PGA Championship002234106
U.S. Women's Open000034119
Women's British Open001245148
The Evian Championship00000153
Totals003410165338
  • Most consecutive cuts made – 7 (2012 Kraft Nabisco – 2013 U.S. Open)
  • Longest streak of top-10s – 2 (2009 U.S. Open - 2009 British Open)

LPGA Tour career summary
YearTournaments
played		Cuts
made*		Wins2nds3rdsTop 10sBest
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 23 20 2 2 0 11 1 1,334,977 5 70.56 6
2013 20 17 0 1 0 2 2 526,968 27 71.29 26
2014 22 15 0 0 0 0 T12 119,825 86 72.75 106
2015 23 15 0 0 0 0 T14 164,446 77 72.06 59
2016 26 20 0 0 1 1 3 275,319 67 71.99 67
2017 12 10 0 0 0 1 T5 167,285 81 71.43 54
  • Official as of 2017 season[7]

* Includes matchplay and other events without a cut.

JLPGA prize money
YearEarnings (¥)Rank
20031,060,800116
2004122,972,3492
2005114,377,8712
200658,604,50110
20074,318,30589
200827,892,33832
200946,430,11614
201016,911,85348
20117,885,28971
20123,493,20098
20136,279,00082
20143,109,000104
20150–
20160–
20174,738,00094
Career418,072,62244

World ranking

Position in Women's World Golf Rankings at the end of each calendar year.

YearWorld
ranking		Source
20066[8]
200717[9]
200836[10]
20098[11]
20106[12]
20119[13]
20129[14]
201321[15]
2014104[16]
2015161[17]
2016115[18]
2017105^[19]

^ Miyazato was last ranked on 25 September 2017. She dropped from the ranking following her retirement.

Team appearances

Amateur

Professional

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. "Golf: Former number one Miyazato to announce retirement - report". The New York Daily News. Reuters. 27 May 2017.
  7. "Ai Miyazato Stats". LPGA. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
  8. "Women's World Golf Rankings". 26 December 2006.
  9. "Women's World Golf Rankings". 25 December 2007.
  10. "Women's World Golf Rankings". 30 December 2008.
  11. "Women's World Golf Rankings". 29 December 2009.
  12. "Women's World Golf Rankings". 28 December 2010.
  13. "Women's World Golf Rankings". 27 December 2011.
  14. "Women's World Golf Rankings". 31 December 2012.
  15. "Women's World Golf Rankings". 30 December 2013.
  16. "Women's World Golf Rankings". 29 December 2014.
  17. "Women's World Golf Rankings". 28 December 2015.
  18. "Women's World Golf Rankings". 26 December 2016.
  19. "Women's World Golf Rankings". 25 September 2017.
Awards
Preceded by
Jiyai Shin		 World No. 1 Ranked Golfer
21 June 2010 – 27 June 2010		 Succeeded by
Cristie Kerr
Preceded by
Cristie Kerr		 World No. 1 Ranked Golfer
19 July 2010 – 25 July 2010		 Succeeded by
Jiyai Shin
Preceded by
Cristie Kerr		 World No. 1 Ranked Golfer
22 August 2010 – 24 October 2010		 Succeeded by
Cristie Kerr
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