Ayako Okamoto

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Ayako Okamoto
Personal Information
Birth April 2, 1951 (1951-04-02) (age 57) Hiroshima, Japan
Height 5 ft 5 in (1.651 m)
Nationality Flag of Japan Japan
College none
Career
Professional wins 62 (LPGA Tour: 17, LPGA of Japan Tour: 44, Ladies European Tour: 1)
Best Results in Major Championships
Kraft Nabisco T5: 1987
LPGA Championship 2: 1989, 1991
U.S. Women's Open 2: 1982, 1987
du Maurier Classic 2: 1984, 1986-87
Awards
LPGA Tour
Player of the Year		 1987
LPGA Tour
Money Winner		 1987
Elected to World Golf Hall of Fame 2005

Ayako Okamoto (Japanese: 岡本綾子, Okamotō Ayako) (born April 2, 1951 in Hiroshima, Japan) is a Japanese professional golfer. She has won 62 tournaments internationally, including seventeen on the LPGA Tour.

Contents

[edit] Early career

In her youth and early 20s, Okamoto's game was softball. 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. Just three years later, at age 25, she won the Mizuno Corporation Tournament. In 1978, 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.[1]

[edit] LPGA career

Okamoto was a superstar in Japan, but she decided to branch out and give the American LPGA Tour a try. 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 three wins in 1984 and 1988, four wins in 1987 (plus four runner-ups and 17 Top 10s). In 1987, she led the tour in winnings and earned the LPGA Tour Player of the Year award, the first non-American to do either.[2]

The only thing Okamoto didn't do in the United States was win a major. She finished as runner-up eight times in major championships. Her best shot was 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.[3]

Okamoto's last LPGA victory was in 1992, and 1993 was her last year to play a full or half schedule in the U.S. After 1993, Okamoto returned to Japan, where she continues to play. In addition to her 17 LPGA wins, Okamoto also won 44 times in Japan and once in Europe. She was voted into the World Golf Hall of Fame on the International ballot and entered in 2005.[4]

[edit] LPGA wins (17)

Note: Okamoto won the Hitachi Ladies British Open (now known as the Women's British Open) before it became a major championship.

[edit] Results in LPGA Majors

Tournament 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990
Kraft Nabisco Championship ... T40 T64 T34 WD T5 T35 CUT T6
LPGA Championship DNP T44 T7 T5 T3 T3 T3 2 T9
U.S. Women's Open T38 T8 T8 T8 T3 T2 T12 T11 T32
du Maurier Classic DNP T10 2 T69 2 2 T13 T24 T31
Tournament 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
Kraft Nabisco Championship T6 T12 79 T19 T37 T48 64 DNP CUT T67
LPGA Championship T2 T15 T37 T28 CUT DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP
U.S. Women's Open T15 CUT T7 T49 T21 DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP
du Maurier Classic DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP

DNP = did not play.
CUT = missed the half=way cut.
"T" = tied
WD = withdrew
Green background for a win. Yellow background for a top-10 finish.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Ayako Okamoto on about.com
  2. ^ Ayako Okamoto on about.com
  3. ^ Ayako Okamoto on about.com
  4. ^ Ayako Okamoto on about.com

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Hiromitsu Ochiai		 Japan Professional Sports Grand Prize Winner
1987		 Succeeded by
Chiyonofuji Mitsugu