＜Photo：Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images＞
The Japan LPGA Championship Konica Minolta Cup, the memorial tournament for the 50th anniversary of the founding of LPGA, starts on 7th September at Appi Kougen Golf Club (6,640 yard/par71), Hachimantai-City, Iwate. Total purse of this prestigious tournament is ￥200million,and winner’s prize ￥36million.
LPGA has been working for this tournament since 5 years ago, with great eagerness to succeed, and to head toward next 50 years, Commissioner Hiromi Kobayashi said enthusiastically, “they will remember the winner’s name long because this is the memorial tournament. This is the best in the history of LPGA and we rank it the most highly, not only in Japan but in Asia. Konica Minolta is supporting this tournament to offer many things including the prize of ￥200million.Thanks to Konica Minolta, this tournament has got great like this.”
Moreover, she revealed the “backstage” of this tournament. “This is the first for us to hold LPGA Championship in Iwate. For the purpose of restoration assistance following the Great East Japan Earthquake, we selected Iwate 5 years ago as the best place for the 50th memorial tournament and a tag line we set --One for all, All for one--. Since then, we all have been doing a lot of charitable activity. We want to support those who are living in Iwate by means of holding this tournament.”
“The course condition was amazing,” Ayako Okamoto, who is the person in charge for the setting of this course, said at the press conference on 21th August. Besides, Tournament Executive chairperson Kaori Harada said, “We set this course 6,640 yards long and Par 71, considering the development of the equipment. Long hitter isn’t necessarily advantageous, because we have set the green 13 feet of stimprating, and 23 of soil compaction, which has never been before in women’s golf in Japan. Players need high technique to win.”
Ai Suzuki intends to win consecutive Japan LPGA Championship, which no one has attained since Hisako Higuchi won in 1,976 and 1,977. “I won this tournament in 2,014 for the first time and it was also the first win for me as a professional. I won again last year, though I had never expected, when all my shots seemed fated to go into win. Now 5 years passed since I had turned pro, I will try to measure whether I have matured, as well as my technique. I will do my best”, she said.
This is the special tournament for any players. “When a player wins this 50th memorial tournament, she is to get the highest status. I myself got a few opportunities to win (in 1.989,the year before playing in USA, she closed at 2th).I wish I could have won”, Commissioner Kobayashi, looking at the winners’ Cup, on the surface of which the former champions’ names are engraved, said, Everything is ready for the next 50 years. Time comes soon when deciding match starts.
