Ai Miyazato
| Ai Miyazato 宮里 藍 |
|
|---|---|
| — Golfer — | |
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Miyazato at the 2010 Women's British Open
|
|
| Personal information | |
| Born |
19 June 1985 Higashi, Okinawa, Japan |
| Height | 5 ft 2 in (1.57 m) |
| Nationality |
 Japan
|
| Residence | Higashi, Okinawa, Japan |
| Career | |
| Turned professional | 2004 |
| Current tour(s) |
LPGA of Japan Tour (joined 2004) LPGA Tour (joined 2006) Ladies European Tour |
| Professional wins | 25 |
| Number of wins by tour | |
| LPGA Tour | 9 |
| Ladies European Tour | 2 |
| LPGA of Japan Tour | 15 |
| Other | 1 |
| Best results in LPGA major championships |
|
| ANA Inspiration | T15: 2007 |
| Women's PGA C'ship | T3: 2006, 2010 |
| U.S. Women's Open | T6: 2009, 2011 |
| Women's British Open | T3: 2009 |
| Evian Championship | T15: 2013 |
| Achievements and awards | |
| Ladies European Tour Order of Merit winner |
2011 |
| William and Mousie Powell Award |
2012 |
Ai Miyazato (宮里 藍 Miyazato Ai?, born 19 June 1985) is a Japanese professional golfer who currently competes 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.
Miyazato was born in Higashi, Okinawa, Japan. As an amateur in 2003, she won a professional event on the LPGA of Japan Tour – the Dunlop Ladies Open in Miyagi Prefecture, where she was attending high school at the time.
In her 2004 rookie season on the JLPGA Tour she won five tournaments. In February 2005, she represented Japan along with Rui Kitada and won the inaugural Women's World Cup of Golf. In 2005, she won six events on the JLPGA tour, and was the #2 ranked player on the JLPGA Tour behind Yuri Fudoh.
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, 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 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.
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