is a former Japanese

professional golfer A professional golfer is somebody who receives payments or financial rewards in the sport of golf that are directly related to their skill or reputation. A person who earns money by teaching or playing golf is traditionally considered a "golf pr ...

who competed on the U.S.-based

LPGA Tour The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) is an American organization for female golfers. The organization is headquartered at the LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Florida, and is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of weekl ...

and the

LPGA of Japan Tour The LPGA of Japan Tour is a professional golf tour for women organised by the Japan Ladies Professional Golfers' Association. It is the second richest women's golf tour in the world. The U.S.-based LPGA Tour is the most important women's tour, but ...

(JLPGA). She was the top-ranked golfer in the

Women's World Golf Rankings The Women's World Golf Rankings, also known for sponsorship reasons as the Rolex Rankings, were introduced in February 2006. They are sanctioned by eight women's golf tours and the organisations behind them: Ladies Professional Golf Association (L ...

on three occasions in 2010.

Early life, family and amateur career

Miyazato was born on 19 June 1985 in

Higashi, Okinawa is a village located in Kunigami District, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. As of 2016, the village has an estimated population of 1,683 and a population density of 21 persons per km². The total area is 81.79 km². Ecotourism The village ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Her father and brothers are professional golfers. Her older brother Yūsaku has won seven times on the

Japan Golf Tour The Japan Golf Tour ( ja, 日本ゴルフツアー機構) is a prominent golf tour. It was founded in 1973 and as of 2006 it offers the third-highest annual prize fund out of the regular (that is not for seniors) men's professional tours after th ...

and played in the 2018 Masters Tournament. As an amateur in 2003, she won a professional event on the

, the Dunlop Ladies Open, in

Miyagi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Miyagi Prefecture has a population of 2,305,596 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Miyagi Prefecture borders Iwate Prefecture to the north, Akita Prefecture to the nort ...

where she was attending high school at the time.

Professional career

In her 2004 rookie season on the JLPGA Tour Miyazato won five tournaments. In February 2005, she represented Japan along with

Rui Kitada is a Japanese professional golfer on the LPGA of Japan Tour. Kitada has won six times on the LPGA of Japan Tour between 2004 and 2010. In February 2005, she teamed with Ai Miyazato to win the inaugural Women's World Cup of Golf in South Africa ...

and won the inaugural

Women's World Cup of Golf The Women's World Cup of Golf was a professional golf tournament contested by teams of two female golfers representing their respective countries. The tournament was played in two incarnations, first in 2000 at Adare Manor Hotel & Golf Resort, Co ...

. In 2005, she won six events on the JLPGA tour, and was the #2 ranked player on the JLPGA Tour behind

Yuri Fudoh is a Japanese golfer. She was the leading money winner on the JLPGA Tour six times in a row from 2000 to 2005. She became the first player on the JLPGA Tour to earn in excess of 100 million yen, a feat she accomplished in 2000, and achieved ...

. 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 is a Japanese professional golfer. She won 62 tournaments internationally, including 17 on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour. She is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. Early career Okamoto was born in Akitsu, Hiroshima, now part of Higashihiroshima ...

, 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 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

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. 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 Miyazato’s fourth season on the LPGA Tour in

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

, she earned her first win at the

Evian Masters The Evian Championship, currently known for sponsorship reasons as The Amundi Evian Championship, is a women's professional golf tournament in France, played at the Evian Resort Golf Club in Évian-les-Bains. It was originally held in June, mov ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, defeating

Sophie Gustafson Sophie Gustafson (born 27 December 1973) is a Swedish professional golfer. She was a member of the U.S.-based LPGA Tour and is a life member of the Ladies European Tour (LET). She has five LPGA Tour and 23 international wins in her career, inc ...

at the first hole of a sudden-death playoff. In

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

, Miyazato won four of the first nine official tournaments on the LPGA Tour and on 21 June rose to number 1 in the

. 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.KSDK.com
Miyazato replaces Kerr as women's No. 1
19 July 2010 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 Na Yeon Choi ( ko, 최나연 ; born 28 October 1987) is a South Korean professional golfer playing on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour. In July 2012, she won the U.S. Women's Open for her first major championship. Amateur career At age 17 in 2004, Ch ...

. 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 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

, 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

, whose purse is much larger than most LET events, earned her enough to top the list. In April 2012, Miyazato won her eighth LPGA event at the inaugural

LPGA Lotte Championship The Lotte Championship is a women's professional golf tournament on the LPGA Tour. It debuted in April 2012 at the Ko Olina Golf Club in Kapolei, Hawaii. The title sponsor of the tournament is Lotte, an industrial conglomerate based in South Ko ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

, four strokes ahead of runners-up

Azahara Muñoz Azahara Muñoz Guijarro (born 19 November 1987) is a Spanish professional golfer on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour and Ladies European Tour. Amateur career Muñoz was born in Málaga, Andalusia in southern Spain and had a successful amateur career ...

and

Meena Lee Meena Lee (; born 25 December 1981) is a South Korean professional golfer who plays on the United States-based LPGA Tour. Lee was born in Jeonju, South Korea. She took up golf at the age of fourteen, which is unusually late for a future professi ...

. Miyazato has endorsements deals with

Suntory (commonly referred to as simply Suntory) is a Japanese multinational brewing and distilling company group. Established in 1899, it is one of the oldest companies in the distribution of alcoholic beverages in Japan, and makes Japanese whisky. Its ...

, Bridgestone Corporation,

Japan Airlines , also known as JAL (''Jaru'') or , is an international airline and Japan's flag carrier and largest airline as of 2021 and 2022, headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its main hubs are Tokyo's Narita International Airport and Haneda Airport, as w ...

, Oakley,

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a product ...

, Hisamitsu,

Mitsubishi Electric , established on 15 January 1921, is a Japanese multinational electronics and electrical equipment manufacturing company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the core companies of Mitsubishi. The products from MELCO include elevators an ...

and NTT Docomo. Her older brothers,

Kiyoshi Miyazato Kiyoshi Miyazato (born 28 February 1977) is a Japanese professional golfer. Miyazato plays on the Japan Golf Tour, where he has won once. His sister, Ai Miyazato, and brother Yūsaku Miyazato are also professional golfers. Professional wins ( ...

and

Yūsaku Miyazato is a Japanese professional golfer. In 2006 he became the first modern-era golfer to make two hole in one shots in the same round of a PGA Tour event, at the Reno-Tahoe Open in Nevada. Early life and amateur career Miyazato was born in Higashi, ...

are also professional golfers. She is not related to fellow Japanese LPGA Tour player

Mika Miyazato Mika Miyazato ( ja, 宮里美香, born 10 October 1989) is a professional golfer from Japan who plays on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour. Career As an amateur, Miyazato won the 2004 Japan Amateur Women's Championship at the age of 14, and was the young ...

. On 27 May 2017, Kyodo News Agency reported that Miyazato would retire at the end of the season. 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)

LPGA Tour playoff record (1–0)

JLPGA Tour (15)

Tournament in bold denotes major championships in JLPGA Tour.

Other (1)

*2005

(with

)

Results in LPGA majors

''Results not in chronological order before 2015.'' ^ The Evian Championship was added as a major in 2013 CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied

Summary

*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

* Official as of 2017 season * Includes matchplay and other events without a cut.

JLPGA prize money

World ranking

Position in

at the end of each calendar year. ^ Miyazato was last ranked on 25 September 2017. She dropped from the ranking following her retirement.

Team appearances

Amateur *

Espirito Santo Trophy The Espirito Santo Trophy (World Women's Amateur Team Championships) is a biennial world amateur team golf championship for women organised by the International Golf Federation. The inaugural event was held in 1964. It was instituted by the Fre ...

(representing Japan):

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

Professional *

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

(representing Japan): 2005 (winners), 2006 *

International Crown The Hanwha LifePlus International Crown is a biennial women's professional team golf tournament on the LPGA Tour. Eight national teams of four players each (32 players in total) participate in the match play event. History It debuted in 2014 at ...

(representing Japan):

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Miyazato, Ai Japanese female golfers LPGA of Japan Tour golfers LPGA Tour golfers Ladies European Tour golfers Asian Games medalists in golf Asian Games gold medalists for Japan Asian Games silver medalists for Japan Golfers at the 2002 Asian Games Medalists at the 2002 Asian Games Sportspeople from Okinawa Prefecture Ryukyuan people 1985 births Living people 21st-century Japanese women