Mika Miyazato Holds On To Win 2013 Japan Women’s Open

Mika Miyazato

It seems whether it’s in the United States or Japan, a national Women’s Open is going to test both the skills and wills of the best female golfers in the world. There will be no 20-under runaway scores. Even elite players need patience. They are forced to embrace the beauty of scoring par on a hole, maybe also the value of a well earned bogey. The 2013 Japan Women’s Open, the third Major of the JLPGA season, concluded with zero players under par overall. After the third round, it seemed that perhaps Mika Miyazato might be the lone sub-par finisher, as she sat at 3-under, following a 1-over par Saturday that saw her separate herself from her nearest competitor by 5 shots. It was a brutal moving day when most players were moving backwards. Nobody shot under par on day 3. Going into Sunday, a 5 shot lead at 3-under overall looked insurmountable on a course that wasn’t going to allow anybody to go low enough to mount a comeback. But looks can be deceiving.

Mika Miyazato

Round 4 proved a daunting test for Mika, as her mettle was measured in full. Miki Saiki surged to 1-over with a 3-under final round. She was joined by Erika Kikuchi at 1-over following a 1-under 71 round. Meanwhile, things were falling apart for Mika Miyazato. She crashed to earth on the front nine, going out with a 4-over 40 at the turn, which had her at 1-over overall. Although she bounced back with birdies on 11 and 13, she gave those right back with back to back bogeys on 14 and 15. Standing of the 18th tee, Mika had to salvage a miserable day with a closing birdie or be forced into a playoff. Staring down a 537 yard par 5, Mika need to be great when it counted. Standing over a 20 foot left to right putt, almost a dog leg shaped putt, it would take a sensational effort to end things in regulation. Mika was up to the task.

Mika Miyazato

And so Mika Miyazato writes her name into the history books as a 2-time Japan Women’s Open winner. She also won in 2010. Indeed, both of her 2 JLPGA wins so far have been at the national Major. The Okinawa-native finished at even par for the tournament, the only player not over par. She takes home 28,000,000 Japanese Yen for her victory, or around 287,000 US Dollars.

BIRDIES

Fourth place finisher Rikako Morita continues to lead the JLPGA money list at ¥98,763,571, as well as Player of the Year points.

Yumi Matsuraba was low amateur, finishing tied for 17th.

Shiho Toyonaga was awarded a prize for her 3rd round hole in one of the par 3 14th.

BOGEYS

Ai MIyazato struggled mightily with a T45 finish at 17-over. Ai is one of the world’s greatest golfers. It just wasn’t her week. Sometimes that happens, even to the greats.

Ditto for the great Mi-Jeong Jeon at 11-over and T32.

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MIKA MIYAZATO

MIKI SAIKI

RIKAKO MORITA

SAKURA YOKOMINE

SHIHO OYAMA

SHIHO TOYONAGA

SUN JU AHN

TERESA LU

YUMI MATSUBARA

AI MIYAZATO

BO MEE LEE

ERIKA KIKUCHI

JIYAI SHIN

Position	Player	ToPar	Thru	Today	1R	2R	3R	4R
1	Mika Miyazato	E	F	+3	70	70	73	75
2T	Miki Saiki	+1	F	-3	70	76	74	69
	Erika Kikuchi	+1	F	-1	73	73	72	71
4T	Rikako Morita	+2	F	-4	74	72	76	68
	Harukyo Nomura	+2	F	-3	73	72	76	69
	Teresa Lu	+2	F	-3	70	77	74	69
	jiyai Shin	+2	F	-1	76	69	74	71
8T	Sun-Ju Ahn	+3	F	-3	75	71	76	69
	Sakura Yokomine	+3	F	-2	73	72	76	70
	Bo-Mee Lee	+3	F	E	74	72	73	72
11	Shiho Oyama	+4	F	E	74	69	77	72
12	Natsuka Hori	+5	F	-3	73	75	76	69
13T	In-Kyung Kim	+6	F	-2	76	73	75	70
	Esther Lee	+6	F	-1	74	76	73	71
	Na-Ri Lee	+6	F	E	73	76	73	72
	Soo-Yun Kang	+6	F	+3	74	71	74	75
	Asako Fujimoto	+6	F	+3	73	73	73	75
18T	Yuri Fudoh	+7	F	-3	71	74	81	69
	Miki Sakai	+7	F	-1	74	72	78	71
	Yumi Matsubara	+7	F	E	74	71	78	72
	Ji-Hee Lee	+7	F	E	74	73	76	72
	Mihoko Iseri	+7	F	+1	70	75	77	73
23	Ayako Uehara	+8	F	-4	73	75	80	68
24T	Bo-Bae Song	+9	F	-1	75	72	79	71
	Haruka Morita	+9	F	-1	73	74	79	71
	Ritsuko Ryu	+9	F	+1	75	74	75	73
27T	Maiko Wakabayashi	+10	F	-2	74	75	79	70
	Mio Kono	+10	F	-2	74	75	79	70
	Yuki Ichinose	+10	F	+1	74	72	79	73
	Junko Omote	+10	F	+1	76	73	76	73
	Kaori Nakamura	+10	F	+2	73	77	74	74
32T	Mi-Jeong Jeon	+11	F	-2	74	75	80	70
	Na-Ri Kim	+11	F	-2	73	79	77	70
	O.Sattaya	+11	F	E	75	78	74	72
	Kotone Hori	+11	F	+3	74	76	74	75
	Mamiko Higa	+11	F	+4	75	72	76	76
	Mayu Hattori	+11	F	+4	72	77	74	76
38	Hyun-Ju Shin	+12	F	+2	72	77	77	74
39	Tomoko Kusakabe	+13	F	+1	72	76	80	73
40T	Saiki Fujita	+14	F	-1	74	79	78	71
	Akane Iijima	+14	F	+3	73	76	78	75
42T	Shiho Toyonaga	+15	F	+1	79	74	77	73
	Yukari Baba	+15	F	+4	75	72	80	76
	Yumiko Yoshida	+15	F	+6	75	76	74	78
45T	Misuzu Narita	+16	F	-1	73	80	80	71
	Ai Miyazato	+16	F	+2	76	74	80	74
	Kaori Ohe	+16	F	+3	71	79	79	75
	Nana Yamashiro	+16	F	+4	76	76	76	76
	Rumi Yoshiba	+16	F	+5	75	74	78	77
	Mina Nakayama	+16	F	+5	77	76	74	77
51T	Kumiko Kaneda	+17	F	-1	77	75	82	71
	Hiromu Ono	+17	F	+2	74	79	78	74
53T	So-Hee Kim	+18	F	E	77	74	83	72
	Hiroko Azuma	+18	F	+1	74	77	82	73
	Yui Mukaiyama	+18	F	+6	72	75	81	78
56	Yumiko Baba	+19	F	+2	77	75	81	74
57T	Da-Ye Na	+20	F	+3	75	76	82	75
	Jessica Speechley	+20	F	+7	76	74	79	79
59T	Hibiki Kitamura	+21	F	+4	76	77	80	76
	Akiho Sato	+21	F	+5	74	76	82	77
61T	Mayumi Nakajima	+23	F	+2	73	80	84	74
	Miki Uehara	+23	F	+3	76	76	84	75
63	P.Chutichai	+25	F	+6	75	78	82	78
64	Arisa Hori	+30	F	+13	77	76	80	85

JLPGA TOURNAMENT WINNERS (Number in parentheses are career JLPGA win total)

Dates	Tournament	Location	Prize fund (¥)	Winner
Mar 8–10	Daikin Orchid Ladies Golf Tournament	Okinawa	80,000,000	Rikako Morita (3)
Mar 15–17	Yokohama Tire Golf Tournament PRGR Ladies Cup	Kochi	80,000,000	Jeon Mi-jeong (22)
Mar 22–24	T-Point Ladies Golf Tournament	Kagoshima	70,000,000	Yuki Ichinose (1)
Mar 29–31	AXA Ladies Golf Tournament in Miyazaki	Miyazaki	80,000,000	Natsuka Hori (1)
Apr 4–7	Yamaha Ladies Open Katsuragi	Shizuoka	100,000,000	Mamiko Higa (1)
Apr 12–14	Studio Alice Women’s Open	Hyogo	60,000,000	Kim Na-ri (2)
Apr 19–21	KKT Cup Vantelin Ladies Open	Kumamoto	70,000,000	Miki Saiki (6)
Apr 26–28	Fuji Sankei Ladies Classic	Shizuoka	80,000,000	Miki Saiki (7)
May 3–5	CyberAgent Ladies Golf Tournament	Chiba	70,000,000	Sakura Yokomine (19)
May 9–12	World Ladies Championship Salonpas Cup	Ibaraki	120,000,000	Hiromi Mogi (6)
May 17–19	Hokken No Madoguchi Ladies	Fukuoka	120,000,000	Onnarin Sattayabanphot (1)
May 24–26	Chukyo TV Bridgestone Ladies Open	Aichi	70,000,000	Rikako Morita (4)
May 31 – Jun 2	Resort Trust Ladies	Hyogo	70,000,000	Mamiko Higa (2)
Jun 7–9	Yonex Ladies Golf Tournament	Niigata	60,000,000	Junko Omote (3)
Jun 13–16	Suntory Ladies Open	Hyogo	100,000,000	Rikako Morita (5)
Jun 21–23	Nichirei Ladies	Chiba	80,000,000	Yumiko Yoshida (2)
Jun 27–30	Earth Mondahmin Cup	Chiba	140,000,000	Natsuka Hori (2)
Jul 5-7	Nichi-Iko Women’s Open Golf Tournament	Toyama	60,000,000	Kim Young (1)
Jul 19–21	Samantha Thavasa Girls Collection Ladies Tournament	Ibaraki	60,000,000	Yumiko Yoshida (3)
Aug 9–11	Meiji Cup	Hokkaido	90,000,000	Na Da-ye (1)
Aug 16–18	NEC Karuizawa 72 Golf Tournament	Nagano	70,000,000	Misuzu Narita (2)
Aug 23–25	CAT Ladies	Kanagawa	60,000,000	Ahn Sun-ju (12)
Aug 30 – Sep 1	Nitori Ladies Golf Tournament	Hokkaido	100,000,000	Ahn Sun-ju (13)
Sep 6–8	Golf 5 Ladies Professional Golf Tournament	Hokkaido	60,000,000	Yumiko Yoshida (4)
Sep 12–15	Japan LPGA Championship Konica Minolta Cup	Hokkaido	140,000,000	Lee Bo-mee (4)
Sep 20–22	Munsingwear Ladies Tokai Classic	Aichi	80,000,000	Sakura Yokomine (20)
Sep 27–29	Miyagi TV Cup Dunlop Women’s Open Golf Tournament	Miyagi	70,000,000	Lee Na-ri (1)
Oct 3–6	Japan Women’s Open Golf Championship	Kanagawa	140,000,000	Mika Miyazato (2)

JLPGA TOP 5

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Ranking	Name	Total points	Grade point	Round number	Winning back a few	Earnings
1	Rikako Morita	411.0pt	328.0pt	83.0pt	3	¥98,763,571
2	Sakura Yokomine	383.5pt	304.5pt	79.0pt	2	¥74,628,570
3	Miki Saiki	347.5pt	281.5pt	66.0pt	2	¥78,932,428
4	Yumiko Yoshida	340.5pt	260.5pt	80.0pt	3	¥69,354,903
5	Bo Mee Lee	323.0pt	258.0pt	65.0pt	1	¥54,096,599

MONEY LIST

Ranking	Name	Amount (In Yen)	Average	Matches	Number of rounds
1	Rikako Morita	¥98,763,571	70.9759	27	83R
2	Miki Saiki	¥78,932,428	70.9859	23	66R
3	Sakura Yokomine	¥74,628,570	70.6088	25	79R
4	Yumiko Yoshida	¥69,354,903	71.4019	27	80R
5	Natsuka Hori	¥64,266,666	71.9387	28	82R

SCORING

Ranking	Name	Average	Matches	Number of rounds
1	Sun Ju Ahn	70.3582	20	62R
2	Sakura Yokomine	70.6088	25	79R
3	Bo Mee Lee	70.7385	21	65R
4	Rikako Morita	70.9759	27	83R
5	Miki Saiki	70.9859	23	66R

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