Toto Japan Classic Archives - Golf Digest Middle East

WATCH: Momoko Ueda clings on to slender lead at Toto Japan Classic

Matt Smith — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 11:15:59 +0000

By Matt Smith
After 36 holes of the Toto Japan Classic, home hope Momoko Ueda clung on to a slender lead thanks to a second round 69 for a 10-under total on Friday.

She holds a one-stroke advantage over compatriot Miyu Yamashita and Ai Suzuki.

Watch the highlights here:

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With two events remaining, top players vie for entry into LPGA’s Tour Championship

Golf Digest Middle East — Thu, 03 Nov 2022 06:44:10 +0000

By Keely Levins
There’s a lot on the line this week at the LPGA’s Toto Japan Classic, set for November 3-6 at Seta Golf Course in Shiga. Only two opportunities remain for players to earn points necessary to play in the CME Group Tour Championship. Players gain entry into the Tour Championship field November 17-20 via a season-long points race, with the top 60 and ties earning a spot at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida. The no-cut event has a $7 million purse, the fourth largest on tour, with a $1.5 million first-place prize money payout.

With only two events left before the championship, players on the bubble have a lot to gain, or lose, in Japan.

The Race to the CME Globe is all about points, with winners of LPGA events earning 500 points. A second-place finish is worth 320 points, third gets 230 points, fourth place receives 180 points and on down the line. Majors are weighted 30 per cent more than the rest of the schedule.

As Ariya Jutanugarn found out at the BMW Ladies Championship two weeks ago, a top-10 finish can change everything. Jutanugarn finished in seventh place and moved from 65th place on the points list to 58th. She won the Race to the CME Globe in both 2016 and 2018.

Beyond the former World No. 1, other big names are lingering right around the coveted 60th-place mark. Anna Nordqvist and Stacy Lewis are in 56th and 57th place respectively, though Lewis is not in the field in Japan. Outside the top 60 are more recent Solheim Cup team members Matilda Castren (65) Brittany Altomare (67), Angel Yin (74) and Yealimi Noh (77). Of these players, only Altomare is not in the field in Japan.

A fan favourite, Maria Fassi, is also one top finish away from breaking into the top 60. She sits at 69th on the points list and is competing in Japan this week.

For players a bit farther down the CME points list, the pressure is just as high. The top 100 players on the list will retain their LPGA cards for next year, so if they’re able to stay within the top 100, they can avoid a trip to Q-School. Brittany Lincicome, former World No. 1 Sung Hyun Park, tour-winner Amy Olson and major champ Sophia Popov are all notable players currently outside the top 100. Though none of these players are in the field in Japan, the Pelican Women’s Championship in Florida from November 10-13 will be their last chance to score points before the end of the season.

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Ai Suzuki, a star in Japan, wins her first LPGA Tour event at the TOTO Japan Classic

Golf Digest Middle East — Mon, 11 Nov 2019 05:51:53 +0000

OTSU, JAPAN – NOVEMBER 10: Ai Suzuki of Japan celebrates the birdie on the 5th green during the final round of the TOTO Japan Classic at Seta Golf Course North Course on November 10, 2019, in Otsu, Shiga, Japan. (Photo by Matt Roberts/Getty Images)

By Keely Levins
Early in the final round of the TOTO Japan Classic, an astounding number of birdies were appearing on the leader board. The three-shot lead that Japan’s Ai Suzuki had at the beginning of the day began to look a lot less comfortable. Jennifer Kupcho was five under through her first seven holes. Morgan Pressel was seven under through eight. Azahara Munoz made three birdies in a four-hole stretch on her front nine.

In turn, Suzuki went out and made plenty of birdies of her own. She shot a final-round 67 to finish at 17-under 199 for the tournament, having made just one bogey over 54 holes on her way to her first LPGA Tour win.

Suzuki made her birdies early on Sunday, too, at Seta Golf Course in Shiga, Japan, the first coming on the second hole, then three in a row starting at No. 5. Her lead grew large enough to make the rest of the afternoon more about who would finish second. Ultimately it was one of Suzuki’s playing partners, Hyo Joo Kim, who separated herself from a large group lingering between nine under and 11 under. Kim finished with three straight birdies to complete the tournament at 14 under.

Matt Roberts/Getty Images

Though Suzuki is an unknown on the LPGA Tour, she’s a star on the LPGA of Japan Tour. The 25-year-old has won five times in 2019, including a week earlier, and has 14 career wins. She is the second JLPGA member to win on the LPGA in 2019, and the third woman who isn’t an LPGA member to win an LPGA Tour event this season.

The first was countrywoman Hinako Shibuno, who won the AIG Women’s British Open in August. Then Ha Na Jang, who left the LPGA Tour to play on the Korean LPGA Tour, won the BMW Ladies Championship two weeks before Suzuki’s win.

When a non-member wins an LPGA event, she has the option to join the tour, either immediately or for the following season. The deadline to make the decision, however, is Nov. 18. Both Shibuno and Jang have said they do not plan to join the LPGA Tour in 2020. Jang said she needs to spend more time with her family, and Shibuno, 20, has said she wants to continue to develop her game on the Japanese tour.

Though the choice Suzuki faces is a big one, the smile on her face after holing the final putt on Sunday showed she enjoyed this win for what it is. Career-changing decisions can be saved for later. Right now, she’s a proud winner on the LPGA Tour.

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Nasa Hataoka wins Toto Japan Classic with an assist from Minjee Lee’s disastrous front nine

Golf Digest Middle East — Mon, 05 Nov 2018 00:53:03 +0000

Ken Ishii
OTSU, JAPAN – NOVEMBER 04: Nasa Hataoka of Japan celebrates on the 18th green after winning the TOTO Japan Classic at Seta Golf Course on November 04, 2018 in Otsu, Shiga, Japan. (Photo by Ken Ishii/Getty Images)

By John Strege
It was a tournament that Japan’s Nasa Hataoka wanted to win more than others, but to do so required a timely assist, and Minjee Lee provided her one.

Hataoka’s two-stroke victory in the Toto Japan Classic on Sunday was made possible by Lee’s early collapse, a front-nine of seven-over par 43 at the Seta Golf Club in Shiga, Japan.

It allowed Hataoka an opportunity to overcome the four-stroke deficit with which she began the final round and to post her second victory of the season, this one coming in her home country.

“I’m so proud,” she said. “I’m so happy to win this event. Actually, I wanted to win this tournament before it began. I am really happy to accomplish it.”

Hataoka, 19, closed with a five-under par 67 to complete 54 holes in 15-under par 202, two ahead of Momoko Ueda and Saki Nagamine of Japan and Carlota Ciganda of Spain.

“I set my goal to 15 under,” she said. “I couldn’t reach that. But I saw the scoreboard and Minjee was dropping her score. So I told myself, just stay ahead of her. I tried not to be too aggressive. Just played my own golf then. I saw the scoreboard after the sixth hole, on the way to the seventh hole. That time I was tied, then I was on top of leaderboard.”

Lee, a rising star from Australia, began the final round with a three-stroke lead, but bogeyed the third and fourth holes, double-bogeyed the seventh and eighth and bogeyed the ninth. She shot a six-over par 78 and tied for 15th.

“I had a really bad front nine,” Lee said. “It was just, I don’t know, maybe a lot of brain farts in a row. But I didn’t really hit the shots that I wanted very solid, so obviously it didn’t go the way I wanted. I’ve had a really good run in the Asia swing, so yeah, it’s a shame I finished today like this.”

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Shanshan Feng defends Toto Japan Classic title

Golf Digest Middle East — Mon, 06 Nov 2017 06:12:28 +0000

OMITAMA, JAPAN – NOVEMBER 05: Shanshan Feng of China hits her tee shot on the 17th hole during the final round of the TOTO Japan Classics 2017 at the Taiheiyo Club Minori Course on November 5, 2017 in Omitama, Ibaraki, Japan. (Photo by Atsushi Tomura/Getty Images)

By Keely Levins
China’s Shanshan Feng won the Toto Japan Classic for the second year in a row, marking the first time in the 2017 season that an LPGA player defended a title.

Feng finished the tournament at 19-under 197, a score in relation to par made all the more impressive given it came in one of the tour’s few three-day tournaments. Leading up to this event, it felt like it was only a matter of time before Feng won. In her last six starts, she had had five top-10s, including two top-three finishes in the two events preceding the Toto Japan Classic.

“That was my goal, before I started the week, to defend my title,” Feng said. “My caddie told me: ‘This week, you’re going to be first. Two weeks ago, you finished third. Last week, you finished second, so you know what comes after that … first.’ I was like, OK, let’s go for it. Here I am, and I’m really happy.”

Feng, who’s the No. 4 player in the world, shot rounds of 66, 63, and 68 at the Minori Course at Taiheiyo Club to win wire-to-wire for the first time in her career. The victory is the eighth overall of career and second this season. Her first win came in May at the LPGA Volvik Championship.

“Can we just keep playing here?” Feng joked. “Can we move the CME Group Tour Championship here? Can we move the U.S. Open here?”

Feng’s 19 under bested the next competitor, Ai Suzuki, by two strokes. This was Suzuki’s eighth start in an LPGA event. The 23-year-old from Japan plays on the Japanese LPGA Tour, where she’s ranked second and has two wins this season. Anna Nordqvist, who had taken about five weeks off before coming to Asia in order to fully recover from mono, finished alone in third at 15 under.

Lexi Thompson had a mathematical chance to become the No. 1 player in the world if she had won in Japan, but she finished T-33. Though she isn’t atop that ranking, she’s still the points leader for the CME Group Tour Championship with one more tournament to play in China this next week. Any player in the top five entering the year-end championship who wins the even will automatically clinch the $1 million bonus.

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