Japanese professional golfer
Kokona Sakurai (櫻井 心那, Sakurai Kokona) (born February 13, 2004) is a Japanese female professional golfer. She plays on the LPGA of Japan Tour (JLPGA) where she has 4 wins and holds the record for most wins in a season (5 in 2022) for the LPGA of Japan STEPUP Tour.[1]
Early life and amateur career
Sakurai, the youngest of a family of 5 with two older brothers, was born in Nagasaki City, Nagasaki Prefecture, Kyushu, Japan.
Sakurai started playing golf at the age of 6 along with a brother one year her senior, out of admiration of Ryo Ishikawa whom she saw playing in person. She won the 9th Kyushu Elementary Student Golf Tournament (2015, 6th grade).[2]
In her senior year of junior high school (9th grade) in 2018, she made a professional tournament debut by participating in the LPGA of Japan STEPUP Tour "Kyushu Mirai Construction Group Ladies," but unfortunately fell two strokes short of the cut-line.[3]
As a junior (11th grade) of Nagasaki Nihon University High School, Sakurai won the 1st OBS Kyushu Girls Junior Golf Tournament (2020)[4] and the 2nd OBS Kyushu Girls Junior Golf Tournament as a senior (12th grade, 2021) to make it two years in a row.[5]. In her senior year, she also won the 51st Kyushu Women's Championship[6], the 40th Kyushu Junior Golf Championship (Competition)[7], and the National High School Golf Championship Individual Division[8]. In the fall of the same year, she passed the JLPGA Player Certification Test on her first try, with a 12th-place tie finish.[9]
Professional career
2022
Managing only 117th place in the QT (qualifying test) rankings, Sakurai played the 2022 season on the LPGA of Japan STEPUP Tour, which is the lower circuit for players without LPGA of Japan Tour exemptions, as the main field of professional competition.[10]
Sakurai started her pro career with a 3rd-place tie at the Rashink･NINGINEER/RKB LADIES tournament in March.[11]
In June, she won the ECC Ladies Golf Tournament, her first professional tournament win with a 13-under par score, shaking off same-age rival Haruka Kawasaki. [12]
In August, at the Hokkaido Meiji Cup, only in her second entry of a tournament of the LPGA of Japan Tour after becoming a pro, she was tied for 1st place till the 17th hole but lost out to the winner Min-Young Lee on the final hole to finish at a 2nd-place tie.[13]
Sakurai’s first overseas tournament was the Simone Asia Pacific Cup (Indonesia) in August, where she finished in a 4th-place tie in the individual competition (70-75-68=213) and 5th place in the team competition teaming up with Maria Shinohara. Through her experience there, she began showing interest in playing in the LPGA.[14][15][16]
In September, she won the Sanyoshimbun Ladies Cup[17] and The Chugoku Shimbun Chupea Ladies Cup[18] back-to-back. After placing a 26th-place tie in the next match, she won the Kanehide Miyarabi Open[19] and then the Japan-Taiwan Friendship Udon-Ken Ladies Golf Tournament[20] for another two straight titles, making it 4 wins in a span of 5 weeks.
Overall, she won five tournaments, the most seasonal wins in the history of the LPGA of Japan STEPUP Tour, in only 16 tournaments. She is also the youngest player ever to be ranked first in total prize money for a season, earning over 25,000,000 yen, also the most ever in a season, for the LPGA of Japan STEPUP Tour. In addition to her victories, she had five top-10 finishes and never failed to make the cutline. In the second half of the final day of the Japan-Taiwan Friendship Udon-Ken Ladies Golf Tournament, where she had a total score of 63, she shot a 28 including two eagles for the latter half, setting a record for the lowest half score on the LPGA of Japan STEPUP Tour.[21][22]
2023
In January, Sakurai won the Hitachi Ladies Classic of the LPGA of Taiwan Tour, her second overseas tour event.[23]
In February, Sakurai signed an affiliation agreement with the Nitori Corporation.[24][25]
Having finished 1st in prize money in the LPGA of Japan STEPUP Tour the previous year, Sakurai was awarded LPGA of Japan Tour exemption for the first half of the 2023 season. She started off the season missing the cut in the first two tournaments but gradually caught on and she recorded her first top 10 finish at the KKTcup VANTELIN Ladies Open in April, finishing tied for 5th place.[26]
At the Shiseido Ladies Open in July, Sakurai started off the final day one stroke behind the leaders. She made consecutive birdies at the 17th and 18th holes on the final day to catch up with the then-new leader Shiho Kuwaki at 10-under par and won the playoff after two holes for her first win on the LPGA of Japan Tour. With this win, she was awarded exemption for the remainder of the season and the next season of 2024.[27][28]
Four weeks later at the Rakuten Super Ladies, Sakurai started off the final day in 2nd place, two strokes behind the leader, and she shot a 66 to come from behind to win her second tournament.[29][30]
On August 3, Sakurai was informed that she had qualified for the AIG Women's Open (August 10 -13) by the category of the top 50 of the Rolex world rankings due to higher rankers qualifying through other means. She started off the first round at 2 under-par for a 7th-place tie, but could not hold on and finished at 5 over-par for a 50th-place tie.[31]
In September, at the Golf5 Ladies Tournament, Sakurai started play in the final group on the final day trailing by one stroke. After 17 holes she was tied with Miyū Yamashita who had already holed out and Sakura Koiwai who was in the same final group at 9-under par. She birdied the final hole to take over the sole lead and win her third tournament, again as a come-from-behind victory. [32][33]
In October, at the Fujitsu Ladies Golf Tournament, with a forecast for heavy rain suggesting rainout on the third and final day, Sakurai scored a birdie on the crucial final hole on the second day to finish off with a self-record tie of 63 with nine birdies and no bogeys, taking the sole lead starting from a three-stroke deficit. On the final day, the tournament was suspended immediately after start-off due to heavy rainfall and later rained out, and thus she earned her fourth win.[34][35]
With the four come-from-behind triumphs, Sakurai became only the third teenager along with Ai Miyazato (8) and Nasa Hataoka (5, including an LPGA win) to win 4 or more LPGA or LPGA of Japan Tour titles, and second only to Miyazato (5 in 2004) in seasonal victories by a teenager. With the 4 wins, she was also runner-up in the number of titles to season champion Miyū Yamashita who recorded 5, with the final one coming in the final tournament of the 2023 season to break the tie with Sakurai at 4.
Sakurai finished the year 6th in prize money and 5th in point rankings.[36][37]
Japan
