Ayako Okamoto
| Ayako Okamoto 岡本 綾子 |
|
|---|---|
| Personal information | |
| Born |
2 April 1951 Akitsu, Hiroshima |
| Height | 5 ft 5 in (1.65 m) |
| Nationality |
 Japan
|
| Career | |
| Turned professional | 1975 |
| Former tour(s) |
LPGA of Japan Tour (1975-2005) LPGA Tour (1981-1995) |
| Professional wins | 62 |
| Number of wins by tour | |
| LPGA Tour | 17 |
| Ladies European Tour | 2 |
| LPGA of Japan Tour | 44 |
| Best results in LPGA major championships |
|
| ANA Inspiration | T5: 1987 |
| Women's PGA C'ship | 2nd/T2: 1989, 1991 |
| U.S. Women's Open | T2: 1987 |
| du Maurier Classic | 2nd: 1984, 1986, 1987 |
| Achievements and awards | |
| World Golf Hall of Fame | 2005 (member page) |
| LPGA of Japan Tour leading money winner |
1981 |
| LPGA Tour leading money winner |
1987 |
| LPGA Tour Player of the Year |
1987 |
Ayako Okamoto (岡本 綾子 Okamoto Ayako?, born 2 April 1951) is a Japanese professional golfer. She won 62 tournaments internationally, including 17 on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour. She is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame.
Okamoto was born in Akitsu, Hiroshima, now part of Higashihiroshima, Hiroshima, Japan. In her youth and early 20s she was a softball player. She was the star pitcher on the Japanese national champion in 1971. Her club team was owned by the textile company Daiwabo, where Okamoto worked. The company owned a golf facility next door, and when she was 22, Okamoto finally decided to start playing. Although she pitched left-handed, she learned golf right-handed. She would join the LPGA of Japan Tour in 1973. Just three years later, at age 25, she won the Mizuno Corporation Tournament. In 1979 (at age 28) Okamoto won the Japan LPGA Championship, and in 1981 she won eight times in Japan and topped the LPGA of Japan money list.
Okamoto was a superstar in Japan, but she decided to branch out and joined the American LPGA Tour in 1981. From 1982 through 1992, Okamoto won 17 times, her first coming at the 1982 Arizona Copper Classic. Okamoto was a consistent winner on the LPGA Tour, claiming four wins in 1987 (plus four runners-up and 17 top-10s) and three wins each in 1984 and 1988. In 1987, she led the tour's money list and earned the LPGA Tour Player of the Year award, the first non-American to do either.
The only thing Okamoto did not do in the United States was win a major. She finished as runner-up six times in major championships. Her best opportunities came in 1986, when she lost a sudden death playoff to Pat Bradley at the du Maurier Classic and in 1987 when she lost an 18-hole playoff to Laura Davies for the U.S. Women's Open crown (JoAnne Carner was also in the playoff). She was in the top-10 at the Open every year from 1983 to 1987, and in the top-10 at the LPGA Championship every year from 1984 to 1991.
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