Mika Miyazato ( ja, 宮里美香, born 10 October 1989) is a professional

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 ...

er from

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 ...

who plays 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 ...

Career

As an amateur, Miyazato won the 2004 Japan Amateur Women's Championship at the age of 14, and was the youngest player to win the event. In the

2006 Asian Games 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

, she won silver medals in the individual and team competitions. Miyazato turned professional in December 2008, after finishing in a tie for 12th in the LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament, a finish that gave her exempt status on the LPGA Tour. The medalist was

Stacy Lewis Stacy Lewis (born February 16, 1985) is an American professional golfer on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour. She has won two major championships: the Kraft Nabisco Championship in 2011 and the Women's British Open in 2013. She was ranked number one in ...

, with

Michelle Wie Michelle Sung Wie West (; born October 11, 1989) is an American professional golfer who plays on the LPGA Tour. At age 10, she became the youngest player to qualify for a USGA amateur championship. Wie also became the youngest winner of the U.S ...

in a tie for seventh. In her first season as a professional at age 19, she had fourth-place finishes at the

LPGA Corning Classic The LPGA Corning Classic was an annual golf tournament for professional female golfers on the LPGA Tour. It took place every year from 1979 through 2009 at the Corning Country Club in Corning, New York. It was one of the longest running tourname ...

and

Wegmans LPGA Wegmans LPGA was women's professional golf tournament on the LPGA Tour. It was played from 1977 to 2009 at the Locust Hill Country Club in Pittsford, New York. History The tournament was originally known as the Bankers Trust Classic, a 54-hol ...

tournaments 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 ...

. Miyazato's first professional victory came at the

Japan Women's Open Golf Championship The is Japan's national women's open golf championship. From 2006 (as of 2011) it is one of the two richest tournaments on the LPGA of Japan Tour The LPGA of Japan Tour is a professional golf tour for women organised by the Japan Ladies Professi ...

in October 2010. That year, she also had five top-10 finishes on the LPGA Tour, including two third-place results, and was 17th on the money list with more than $600,000 in earnings. 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 held the 36-hole lead at the

U.S. Women's Open The U.S. Women's Open, one of 15 national golf championships conducted by the United States Golf Association (USGA), is the oldest of the LPGA Tour's five major championships, which includes the Chevron Championship, Women's PGA Championship, W ...

and finished fifth. She had three other top-10s during the season, and won nearly $600,000. Despite a slow start,

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

was Miyazato's best season. After missing three successive cuts in the early spring, she lost in the first round of the

Sybase Match Play Championship The Sybase Match Play Championship was a women's professional golf tournament for three seasons on the LPGA Tour, held at Hamilton Farm Golf Club in Gladstone, New Jersey. First played in 2010, it was the only match play format event on the LPGA T ...

, and did not have a top twenty finish through May. Miyazato rebounded the next week in early June with a tie for third at the

ShopRite LPGA Classic The ShopRite LPGA Classic, known in full for sponsorship reasons as The ShopRite LPGA Classic Presented by Acer, is a women's professional golf tournament on the LPGA Tour in Galloway, New Jersey, near Atlantic City. It took place annually from ...

in Atlantic City. The following week, she tied for second at the

LPGA Championship The Women's PGA Championship (branded as the KPMG Women's PGA Championship for sponsorship reasons) is a women's professional golf tournament. First held in 1955, it is one of five majors on the LPGA Tour. It is not recognized as a major by the ...

, two strokes behind winner

Shanshan Feng Shanshan Feng (, ; born 5 August 1989) is a Chinese former professional golfer who previously played on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour. She was the first player from China to become a member of the LPGA Tour, which she joined in 2008. Feng had 10 v ...

. At her next start at the

Walmart NW Arkansas Championship The Walmart NW Arkansas Championship is an annual women's professional golf tournament on the LPGA Tour in Rogers, Arkansas, north of Fayetteville. First played in 2007, all editions of the tournament have been played at Pinnacle Country Club ...

, Miyazato again tied for second. After two additional top ten finishes at the

and

Jamie Farr Toledo Classic The Dana Open Presented By Marathon, is a women's professional golf tournament on the LPGA Tour. It was founded in 1984 and has been played yearly, except in 1986 and 2011, in Sylvania, Ohio, a suburb northwest of Toledo. The tournament is tele ...

, she won her first LPGA Tour event in August at the Safeway Classic in Oregon. For the season, she earned more than $1 million and had nine top-10 finishes. In October 2013, Miyazato won her second Japan Women's Open title. With a

birdie Birdy or Birdie may refer to: Places in the United States * Birdie, Georgia, an unincorporated community * Birdie, Mississippi, an unincorporated community People with the name * Birdie Blye (1871–1935), American pianist * Birdy (singer) ...

on the last hole of the tournament, she defeated Erika Kikuchi and Miki Saiki by one stroke. Miyazato made less than half of her 2012 earnings during the

2013 LPGA Tour The 2013 LPGA Tour was a series of weekly golf tournaments for elite female golfers from around the world. The Tour began in Australia on February 14 and ended on November 24 in Florida. The tournaments were sanctioned by the United States-based L ...

season, with a pair of top-10s. Her earnings on the LPGA dipped to about $105,000 in the 2014 season, before climbing back over $500,000 in 2015. Almost $200,000 of her 2015 total came at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship, where she posted a second-place finish. During the 2016 season, Miyazato's earnings dropped to under $300,000, putting her in 68th place on the LPGA money list. She had one top-10 finish in 2016: a tie for sixth at the ShopRite LPGA Classic. In

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

, she played in 10 LPGA tournaments, missing the cut in eight of them. Miyazato ended the year outside the top 150 in season earnings. Her LPGA schedule in

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

was limited to two events, a missed cut at the

Marathon Classic The Dana Open Presented By Marathon, is a women's professional golf tournament on the LPGA Tour. It was founded in 1984 and has been played yearly, except in 1986 and 2011, in Sylvania, Ohio, a suburb northwest of Toledo. The tournament is te ...

and a tie for 52nd at the

Ladies Scottish Open The Trust Golf Women's Scottish Open is a women's professional golf tournament in Scotland on the Ladies European Tour (LET). First played in 1986, it became a regular fixture on the tour schedule in 2010. Since 2017 it has been co-sanctioned ...

. In Miyazato's only LPGA appearance of

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

, at the

Toto Japan Classic The Toto Japan Classic is an annual women's professional golf tournament in Japan, jointly sanctioned by the two richest women's professional tours: the U.S.-based LPGA Tour and the LPGA of Japan Tour. It was an unofficial money event on the LPGA ...

, she tied for 69th. Although both are from

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

, she is not related to former LPGA Tour player

Ai Miyazato 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. Early life, family and amateur ca ...

Professional wins (3)

LPGA Tour wins (1)

JLPGA wins (2)

Tournaments in bold denotes JLPGA major championships.

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 – 8 (2012 LPGA – 2013 Evian) *Longest streak of top-10s – 3 (twice)

LPGA Tour career summary

* official through 2019 season

World ranking

Position in

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 ...

at the end of each calendar year.

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 Fren ...

(representing Japan):

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

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 ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

Professional *

International Crown The Hanwha LifePlus International Crown is a :wikt:biennial, 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 deb ...

(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 ...

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Miyazato, Mika Japanese female golfers LPGA Tour golfers Asian Games medalists in golf Asian Games silver medalists for Japan Golfers at the 2006 Asian Games Medalists at the 2006 Asian Games Sportspeople from Okinawa Prefecture Ryukyuan people 1989 births Living people 21st-century Japanese women