The Kirin Open was a

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

tournament in

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 ...

. It was founded in 1972 as the season ending event on the

Asia Golf Circuit The Asia Golf Circuit was the principal men's professional golf tour in Southeast Asia from the early 1960s through to the mid-late 1990s. The tour was founded in 1961 as the Far East Circuit. The first series of five tournaments was held in 1962 ...

, replacing the

Yomiuri International The Yomiuri International was a golf tournament held in Japan from 1962 to 1971. It was played at the Yomiuri Country Club in Tokyo. It was an event on the Asia Golf Circuit (formerly the Far East Circuit) every year except for 1964, and served as ...

which had been cancelled when sponsors decided to discontinue the event. It was also a fixture 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 ...

from 1974 until 2001. It was played at Sobu Country Club in

Inzai file:Inzai city hall.JPG, 260px, Inzai City Hall is a Cities of Japan, city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 105,463 in 42,388 households and a population density of 850 persons per km². The total are ...

until 1976. In 1977 Dunlop became title sponsors and the tournament was moved to Ibaraki Golf Club in Ibaraki.

Winners

Notes

References

External links

Coverage on Japan Golf Tour's official site
Asia Golf Circuit events Former Japan Golf Tour events Defunct golf tournaments in Japan Sport in Ibaraki Prefecture Recurring sporting events established in 1972 Recurring sporting events disestablished in 2001 1972 establishments in Japan 2001 disestablishments in Japan {{golf-tournament-stub