The 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 ...

tournament 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 ...

. It is played at the ABC Golf Club in

Katō, Hyōgo 260px, Lake Tōjō is a city in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 39,628 in 17199 households and a population density of 250 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Katō is located slightl ...

, usually in October or November. It was founded in 1971 as a Japan vs. United States team match (there was also individual prize money and the event counted as an official win on tour). In 1988, it became a full-field individual event. The event is sponsored by

Asahi Broadcasting Corporation is a certified broadcasting holding company headquartered in Osaka, Japan. Until March 31, 2018, it was a unified radio and television broadcaster serving in the Kansai region. On April 1, 2018, its radio and television broadcasting divisions ...

and Mynavi Corporation.

History

The tournament was founded in 1971 as the Miki Gold Cup, a nine-man team match between golfers from Japan and the United States. Results were based on the aggregate of the best seven scores from each team after 54 holes of

stroke play Stroke play, also known as medal play, is a scoring system in the sport of golf in which the total number of strokes is counted over one or more rounds of 18 holes. In stroke play, the winner is the player who has taken the fewest strokes over the ...

competition; there was also a prize for the best individual score. The event was renamed as the ABC Cup in 1972. The following year, the best eight scores were used to determine the winner, and in 1975 the event was extended to 72 holes. Between 1982 and 1984 the event was titled as the Goldwin Cup (1982–83) and the Uchida Yoko Cup (1984), during which time it was contested as stroke play matches with two points were awarded for a match win and one point for a tie. The first two rounds were played as

better ball Four-ball is a pairs playing format in the game of golf. It is also known as better ball and best ball, although the latter more properly describes a variation involving teams of 3 or 4 players. It is also sometimes abbreviated as 4BBB. In a strok ...

pairs and the final two rounds as singles, from which the scores were used to determine the individual winner. In 1985 the event reverted to its earlier format and name. In 1988, the tournament became a regular 72 hole stroke play event on the

, since when it has always been held at ABC Golf Club in Katō, Hyōgo. Sponsored by

Philip Morris International Philip Morris International Inc. (PMI) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational tobacco company, with products sold in over 180 countries. The most recognized and best selling product of the company is Marlboro. Philip Morris I ...

, it was titled using the

Lark Larks are passerine birds of the family Alaudidae. Larks have a cosmopolitan distribution with the largest number of species occurring in Africa. Only a single species, the horned lark, occurs in North America, and only Horsfield's bush lark occu ...

brand as the ABC Lark Cup or Lark Cup for five years, until 1994 when it became the Philip Morris Championship. After Philip Morris sponsorship came to an end, in 2003 the event became titled the ABC Championship, with Mynavi being added as title sponsor in 2008.

Tournament hosts

Winners

Japan vs USA team matches

Notes

References

External links

*
Coverage on the Japan Golf Tour's official site
{{Japan Golf Tour Events Japan Golf Tour events Golf tournaments in Japan Sport in Hyōgo Prefecture Asahi Broadcasting Corporation original programming Recurring sporting events established in 1971 1971 establishments in Japan Team golf tournaments