The Japan Golf Tour ( ja, 日本ゴルフツアー機構) is a prominent

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 ...

tour Tour or Tours may refer to: Travel * Tourism, travel for pleasure * Tour of duty, a period of time spent in military service * Campus tour, a journey through a college or university's campus * Guided tour, a journey through a location, directed b ...

. 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 the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...

and the

European Tour The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fift ...

. However, since the early 1990s, the growth in prize money has not kept pace with that on the two larger tours. Official events on the Japan Golf Tour count for World Golf Ranking points, and success on the tour can also qualify members to play in the

majors Jonathan Michael Majors (born September 7, 1989)Majors in is an American actor. He rose to prominence after starring in the independent feature film ''The Last Black Man in San Francisco'' (2019). In 2020, he garnered wider notice for portraying ...

. Most of the leading players on the tour are

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 ...

ese, but players from many other countries also participate. The tour is currently run by the Japan Golf Tour Organization (JGTO), which was established in 1999 to separate the tour from the PGA of Japan. The JGTO also organises a developmental tour called the

Japan Challenge Tour The Japan Challenge Tour (currently known as the AbemaTV Tour for sponsorships reasons), is a series of developmental golf tournaments run by the Japan Golf Tour Organization. It has been in operation since 1985. The 2018 schedule featured 12 tourn ...

. Masashi "Jumbo" Ozaki has been the dominant player on tour, leading the career wins list with 94, the career money list with over ¥2 billion, and winning the money title twelve times between 1973 and 1998. Entry to

The Open Championship The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later th ...

is given to Order of Merit winner and runner-up,

Japan Open Golf Championship The is Japan's national open golf championship. Founded in 1927, it is one of the oldest professional golf tournaments in Japan. The Japan Open is one of the three richest tournaments on the Japan Golf Tour, with a prize fund of ¥210 million in ...

winner, two players not already exempt from the money list up to the

Japan Golf Tour Championship The is a professional golf tournament on the Japan Golf Tour. Founded in 2000, it is one of the four major championships on the tour. Tournament hosts The Japan Golf Tour Championship has been played at Shishido Hills Country Club since 2003. F ...

, and the top four non-exempt players from the

Mizuno Open The is a professional golf tournament played in Japan. Founded in 1971, it has been a Japan Golf Tour event since 1979. Since 1998, the event has been prefixed , with the top finishers gaining exemptions into The Open Championship. The Mizuno Ope ...

. In December 2022, a new agreement involving the JGTO,

and

was announced. As part of the deal, from 2023 onwards the top three on the Japan Golf Tour's season-ending money list will earn status to play on the European Tour for the following season.

Money list winners

The official prize money list on the Japan Golf Tour includes money won by members in the majors and the

World Golf Championships The World Golf Championships (WGC) are a group of annual professional golf tournaments created by the International Federation of PGA Tours as a means of gathering the best players in the world together more frequently than the pre-existing four ...

events.

Multiple money list titles

The following players have won more than one money list title through 2021:

Career money leaders

The table shows the top ten career money leaders on the Japan Golf Tour through the 2021 season. The figures shown include money won in the four global major championships from 1998 onwards and in the individual

from 1999 to 2009. There is a full list on the Japan Golf Tour's websit
here

Records

*Youngest winner:

Ryo Ishikawa , also known by the nickname , is a Japanese professional golfer. Amateur career On 20 May 2007, Ishikawa became the youngest winner ever of a men's regular tournament on the Japan Golf Tour by winning the Munsingwear Open KSB Cup at the age 15 ...

(amateur) 15 years, 238 days (

Munsingwear Open KSB Cup The Munsingwear Open KSB Cup was a professional golf tournament on the Japan Golf Tour. It was created in 2000 as a result of the merger of two previous tournaments, the Georgia KSB Open and the Descente Classic Munsingwear Cup. The Georgia KSB O ...

, 2007)

Notes

References

External links

* {{Men's Professional Golf Tours Professional golf tours 1973 establishments in Japan Organizations established in 1973