The Japan LPGA Championship Konica Minolta Cup ended last Sunday with 19-year-old rookie Haruka Kawasaki springing a big surprise by becoming the tournament’s youngest-ever champion.
The Kyoto-born lass upstaged her more illustrious rivals after closing with a brilliant eight-under-par for a 16-under 272 total to win by three shots from Miyuu Yamashita at the Joyo Country Club in Kyoto Prefecture.
Kawasaki rewrote the previous record for youngest winner held by then 20-year-old Ai Suzuki in 2014.
The successful staging of the Japan LPGA Championship Konica Minolta Cup for the 55th straight edition also marked how far the LPGA Tour of Japan (JLPGA Tour) has come since it was founded in 1967.
The JLPGA Tour has gone from strength to strength over the years and is now regarded as one of the most prominent women’s golf tours in the world.
The JLPGA Tour also holds the distinction of having the most number of events in a season for many years.
This season itself, the JLPGA Tour boasts a total of 38 events in its tournament calendar, six more than the US LPGA Tour.
But as far as the JLPGA is concerned, the Tour still has plenty of unfulfilled potential and believes it has what it takes to become as big as its US counterpart.
For that lofty ambition to be met, JLPGA knows more needs to be done to expand its global presence.
One of the key elements to positioning JLPGA Tour as a global tour, rather than domestic, is by increasing the participation of international players.
JLPGA said it has undertaken several reforms to further strengthen the Tour, both financially and prestige, to entice professionals outside Japan to ply their trade in Japan.
Hiromi Kobayashi, JLPGA Chairman said, “As the JLPGA reached its 55th-year milestone, we still have many goals left to be achieved.
“Over the years, we have developed and significantly improved thanks to much support from sponsors.
“JLPGA Tour has a very unique structure where the title sponsor for a tournament does not only pay for all expenses but is responsible for running it, which is different from US LPGA and Ladies European Tour.
“Therefore, becoming like US LPGA is one of our goals, and to do so, we have reformed the tour in innovative ways for the past 10 years.
“For example, from the beginning of the 2022 season, JLPGA has acquired the TV broadcasting rights of the official tournaments in JLPGA.
“With this change, we foresee that our financial status will be boosted significantly from 2023 onwards. There will be funds made available for us to reinvest in other areas deemed necessary.
“TV broadcasting rights and sales of merchandise and tickets are fundamental in the running of sports business. For us, we’re still working hard on the aspects of sales of merchandise and tickets due to the limitations faced.
“The reason for that is because of the structure of specific Japanese tours. JLPGA, being a sanctioning organisation, has not been able to obtain all kinds of rights like what the European and US tours are enjoying.
“That is why JLPGA has room to grow.”
JLPGA is convinced that its Tour can only get better and bigger by having a bigger multi-national field.
While many players aspire to play in the US, JLPGA stressed that its Tour, being one of the most lucrative women’s tours, can match the ambition of many.
The 18th green at the Joyo Country Club in Kyoto. Photo: Konica Minolta Cup
“JLPGA opened the door for international players decades ago and it has been wide opened ever since. In the early years, many Taiwanese and Korean players joined us and made their presence felt, contributing to our Tour’s growth,” added Kobayashi.
“In the global era like today, players have choices of where and in which tour they want to compete, giving them a wide opportunity to play golf. But surely, like any other tour, they have to pass either a pro test or Q-school to get to JLPGA Tour.”
“JLPGA has the largest number of tournaments in the world, and we are proud that we have an amazing tour environment.
“On top of that, working in Japan means adapting to Japanese society, understanding our history and the differences in customs.
“We hope that more international players will consider Japan when it comes to professional golf career. Rest assured, it can be very rewarding and fulfilling.”
As indicated by all-time JLPGA Tour statistics, many international players did prove that they can take on the cream of the crop of Japanese women’s golfers.
“A total of 120 players from more than 10 countries including Taiwan, Philippines, Korea, China, France, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Brazil and Thailand have joined us since we first opened the doors.
“Clearly, they did not just make the numbers as international players accounted for 332 wins in total!”
Meanwhile, Konica Minolta spokesman said they are honoured to continue being associated with the Japan LPGA Championship, which is one of the longest-running women’s professional events along with the Japan Women’s Open.
This year’s marked the 26th edition Konica Minolta has title sponsored the flagship tournament in succession.
“This tournament of JLPGA, which aims to be the No. 1 tournament in Asia, matches our global expansion,” he said.
“This tournament is also the goal of many players as one of the four majors of Japanese women’s golf. I feel our significance in that.
“The position of this tournament in our company is also important, and it is highly satisfying. This is a very important event.
“In addition, JLPGA’s global development goals and our global activities match, so we would like to continue to support this tournament.
“In near future, we would like to see bigger participation of players from all over Asia.”
