Momoko Ueda
Japanese professional golfer (born 1986)
Momoko Ueda (上田 桃子, Ueda Momoko; born 15 June 1986) is a Japanese female professional golfer who in 2007 at the age of 21 became the youngest player in the history of the LPGA of Japan Tour (JLPGA) to finish first on the money list. She also played on the United States-based LPGA Tour for six years.
01Amateur career
Ueda was born in Kumamoto, Japan. She started playing golf at the age of nine, and entered the prestigious Sakata School at ten. In twenty three amateur events, she placed in the top 10 fifteen times, including three wins, and five second-place finishes.
02Professional career
Ueda turned pro in August 2005 and won the JLPGA rookies cup that year. In 2006, she placed 4th in two JLPGA events, and tied for 9th in the Mizuno Classic, a joint JLPGA and LPGA event.
2007 was her breakout year on the JLPGA, with five wins, six runners-up, a 3rd and a 5th. Internationally, she represented Japan in the World Cup, and played in the Women's British Open at St Andrews. In April she won the Life Card Ladies at her home town of Kumamoto. She went on to win the Resort Trust Ladies and the Stanley Ladies, and placed 2nd in the Fujitsu Ladies, before winning the Mizuno Classic in November. A highlight of her tournament was a double-eagle during the tournament's final round. She became the tournament's first Japanese winner in nine years and only the 16th non-LPGA member in history to win an LPGA event. Two weeks later at the Elleair Ladies she won her fifth tournament and became the youngest money title winner in the history of the JLPGA tour.
Her win at Mizuno qualified her to play on the LPGA tour in 2008. In her first tournament of the year, the SBS Open at Turtle Bay, she finished fifth.
Ueda again won the Mizuno Classic in 2011. She birdied the 3rd hole of a sudden death playoff to defeat Shanshan Feng.
At the conclusion of the second round of the 2024 Daio Paper Elleair Ladies Open on 15 November 2024, Ueda retired from the JLPGA Tour.
03Professional wins (17)
LPGA of Japan Tour wins (17)
a Co-sanctioned by the LPGA Tour.
LPGA Tour wins (2)
| Legend |
|---|
| Major championships (0) |
| Other LPGA Tour (2) |
| No. | Date | Tournament | Winning score | To par | Margin of victory |
Runner(s)-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 Nov 2007 | Mizuno Classica | 70-67-66=203 | , 13 | 2 strokes | Maria Hjorth Reilley Rankin |
| 2 | 6 Nov 2011 | Mizuno Classica | 67-64-69=200 | , 16 | Playoff | Shanshan Feng |
a Co-sanctioned by the LPGA of Japan Tour.
LPGA Tour playoff record (1-0)
| No. | Year | Tournament | Opponent | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2011 | Mizuno Classic | Shanshan Feng | Won with birdie on third extra hole |
04Results in LPGA majors
| Tournament | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chevron Championship | T47 | T30 | T27 | T33 | T66 | T41 | ||||||||||
| Women's PGA Championship | T25 | T57 | CUT | T30 | CUT | CUT | ||||||||||
| U.S. Women's Open | T13 | T40 | CUT | CUT | CUT | CUT | CUT | CUT | CUT | |||||||
| The Evian Championship ^ | T27 | NT | ||||||||||||||
| Women's British Open | T7 | T55 | T9 | T22 | CUT | CUT | CUT | T51 | 6 | |||||||
^ The Evian Championship was added as a major in 2013.
Top 10 Did not playCUT = missed the half-way cut
NT = no tournament
"T" = tied
05LPGA Tour career summary
| Year | Events played | Cuts made | Wins | 2nds | 3rds | Top 10s | Best finish | Earnings ($) | Rank | Scoring average | Scoring rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | T9 | 24,442 | n/a | 69.67 | n/a |
| 2007 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 302,550 | n/a | 72.07 | n/a |
| 2008 | 19 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 413,592 | 45 | 71.74 | 23 |
| 2009 | 18 | 15 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | T2 | 416,333 | 33 | 71.68 | 28 |
| 2010 | 9 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | T6 | 114,509 | 45 | 71.81 | 31 |
| 2011 | 16 | 13 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 333,494 | 34 | 72.19 | 31 |
| 2012 | 19 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | T12 | 210,197 | 58 | 71.85 | 33 |
| 2013 | 17 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | T27 | 83,283 | 88 | 72.66 | 76 |
- Official as of the 2013 season
06JLPGA prize money
| Year | Earnings (¥) | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 0 | , |
| 2006 | 46,751,163 | 13 |
| 2007 | 166,112,232 | 1 |
| 2008 | 54,617,651 | 17 |
| 2009 | 42,380,260 | 21 |
| 2010 | 21,771,999 | 39 |
| 2011 | 35,710,800 | 22 |
| 2012 | 6,383,200 | 80 |
| 2013 | 19,256,000 | 48 |
| 2014 | 74,315,585 | 10 |
| 2015 | 88,731,118 | 7 |
| 2016 | 31,085,815 | 35 |
| 2017 | 101,820,977 | 6 |
| 2018 | 49,337,685 | 21 |
| 2019 | 81,089,991 | 9 |
| 2020-21* | 57,140,302 | 13 |
| Total* | 876,504,778 | 9 |
* As of 13 June 2021
07Team appearances
Professional
- World Cup (representing Japan): 2007
- The Queens (representing Japan): 2015 (winners), 2017 (winners)
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Momoko Ueda”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- 2009 Women's British Open – Momoko Ueda (4).jpg by Wojciech Migda (Wmigda), CC BY-SA 3.0
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