Isao Aoki

Isao Aoki (青木 功, Aoki Isao; born 31 August 1942) is a Japanese professional golfer. He was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2004.

Isao Aoki 青木 功
Personal information
Born	(1942-08-31) 31 August 1942 (age 82) Abiko, Chiba, Japan
Height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Weight	180 lb (82 kg)
Sporting nationality	Japan
Career
Turned professional	1964
Former tour(s)	PGA Tour Japan Golf Tour Champions Tour
Professional wins	80
Highest ranking	8 (7 June 1987)[1]
Number of wins by tour
PGA Tour	1
European Tour	1
Japan Golf Tour	51 (2nd all-time)
PGA Tour of Australasia	1
PGA Tour Champions	9
Other	17
Best results in major championships
Masters Tournament	T16: 1985
PGA Championship	T4: 1981
U.S. Open	2nd: 1980
The Open Championship	T7: 1978, 1979, 1988
Achievements and awards
World Golf Hall of Fame 2004 (member page) PGA of Japan Tour money list winner 1976, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981

Early life

Aoki was born in Abiko, Chiba, Japan. He was introduced to golf while caddying at the Abiko Golf Club as a schoolboy.

Professional career

In 1964, Aoki turned professional. He went on to win more than fifty events on the Japan Golf Tour between 1972 and 1990, trailing only Masashi "Jumbo" Ozaki on the list of golfers with most Japan Golf Tour wins. He won the Japan Golf Tour money list five times in six years: 1976, 1978, 1979, 1980, and 1981. His career earnings are 980 million yen.^[2]

In 1983, Aoki won the Hawaiian Open on the U.S.-based PGA Tour, the first Japanese and Asian player to win on the tour,^[3] and the Panasonic European Open on the European Tour. He also won the prestigious World Match Play Championship in England in 1978, which was not a European Tour event at that time, and picked up a win on the PGA Tour of Australasia. Aoki is also one of the nine players in the history of the Open Championship to shoot a round of just 63 shots (which he achieved in the third round of the 1980 event). Despite this being the joint-best round in the history of the tournament at the time, Aoki would only finish tied for 12th that year.

Aoki played 165 times on the PGA Tour between 1974 and 1999, primarily from 1981 to 1990. His best finish in a major championship was a second-place finish to Jack Nicklaus (by two strokes) in the 1980 U.S. Open. That finish, combined with his recent record in Japan and around the globe, meant that Aoki would finish 1980 ranked third in the unofficial McCormack's World Golf Rankings, a position he would hold at the end of 1981. After the Official World Golf Rankings debuted in 1986, he was ranked in the top-10 for several weeks in 1987.^[4]

In December 1984 after receiving an invitation from Gary Player, Aoki traveled to South Africa to participate in the Million Dollar Challenge. Aoki did this in spite of the efforts of the Japanese government to dissuade him from making the trip.^[5]

As a senior, Aoki has played primarily in the United States on the Champions Tour, winning nine times between 1992 and 2003. He has eight senior victories outside the United States, including five victories in the Japan Senior Open where he shot his age, 65, during his most recent triumph in 2007.^[6]

Professional wins (80)

PGA Tour wins (1)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runner-up
1	13 Feb 1983	Hawaiian Open	−20 (66-70-65-67=268)	1 stroke	Jack Renner

European Tour wins (1)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runners-up
1	4 Sep 1983	Panasonic European Open	−6 (65-70-70-69=274)	2 strokes	Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Carl Mason

PGA of Japan Tour wins (51)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up
1	29 Apr 1973	Chunichi Crowns	−10 (66-67-68-69=270)	1 stroke	Lu Liang-Huan
2	20 May 1973	Pepsi-Wilson Tournament	−7 (67-65-72-77=281)	Playoff	Kosaku Shimada
3	17 Jun 1973	Sapporo Tokyu Open	−7 (69-71-67-74=281)	1 stroke	Lu Liang-Huan
4	26 Aug 1973	KBC Augusta	−22 (64-67-68-67=266)	13 strokes	Yasuhiro Miyamoto
5	21 Oct 1973	Japan PGA Championship	−13 (64-70-68-73=275)	8 strokes	Haruo Yasuda
6	17 Feb 1974	JPGA East-West Match	−5 (139)
7	14 Jul 1974	Kanto Open	−17 (65-65-71-70=271)	12 strokes	Takaaki Kona
8	4 Aug 1974	Kanto Pro Championship	−21 (67-66-68-66=267)	6 strokes	Hideyo Sugimoto
9	15 Sep 1974	Sanpo Classic	−12 (69-65-68-74=276)	3 strokes	Kuo Chie-Hsiung, Masashi Ozaki
10	29 Apr 1975	Chunichi Crowns (2)	−6 (68-68-68-68=272)	1 stroke	Teruo Sugihara
11	13 Jul 1975	Kanto Open (2)	−8 (72-72-69-67=280)	1 stroke	Fujio Kobayashi
12	17 Oct 1976	Tokai Classic	−5 (74-74-68-67=283)	Playoff	Teruo Sugihara, Shigeru Uchida
13	12 Jun 1977	Tohoku Classic	−10 (71-67-72-68=278)	1 stroke	Lu Liang-Huan
14	13 Nov 1977	ABC Japan vs USA Golf Matches	−8 (67-69-71-73=280)	2 strokes	Tom Weiskopf
15	30 Apr 1978	Chunichi Crowns (3)	−10 (63-67-69-70=270)	5 strokes	Masashi Ozaki
16	28 May 1978	Japan PGA Match-Play Championship	2 and 1		Takahiro Takeyasu
17	18 Jun 1978	Sapporo Tokyu Open (2)	−10 (70-69-67-72=278)	5 strokes	Hsieh Yung-yo
18	6 Aug 1978	Kanto Pro Championship (2)	−14 (69-69-68-68=274)	1 stroke	Tsuneyuki Nakajima
19	12 Nov 1978	ABC Japan vs USA Golf Matches (2)	−15 (71-68-64-70=273)	5 strokes	Kosaku Shimada
20	3 Dec 1978	Golf Nippon Series	−8 (69-69-73-71=282)	1 stroke	Haruo Yasuda
21	29 Apr 1979	Chunichi Crowns (4)	−1 (67-73-69-70=279)	1 stroke	Tōru Nakamura, Haruo Yasuda
22	20 May 1979	Japan PGA Match-Play Championship (2)	1 up		Hsieh Min-Nan
23	1 Jul 1979	Kanto Pro Championship (3)	−9 (68-66-72-73=279)	5 strokes
24	2 Dec 1979	Golf Nippon Series (3)	−14 (68-71-66-71=276)	13 strokes	Kikuo Arai, Tōru Nakamura
25	4 May 1980	Chunichi Crowns (5)	E (69-68-71-72=280)	2 strokes	Graham Marsh
26	25 May 1980	Yomiuri Open	−9 (70-72-71-70=283)	1 stroke	Teruo Sugihara
27	31 Aug 1980	KBC Augusta (2)	−7 (68-69=137)*	2 strokes	Hiroshi Tahara
28	28 Sep 1980	Kanto Open (3)	[phone]=290)	1 stroke	Pete Izumikawa, Akira Yabe
29	30 Nov 1980	Gene Sarazen Jun Classic	−11 (68-67-70-72=277)	1 stroke	Seve Ballesteros
30	22 Mar 1981	Shizuoka Open	−9 (74-69-64-72=279)	Playoff	Akira Yabe
31	17 May 1981	Japan PGA Match-Play Championship (3)	38 holes		Katsuji Hasegawa
32	2 Aug 1981	Japan PGA Championship (2)	−11 (72-67-70-68=277)	4 strokes	Tōru Nakamura
33	16 May 1982	Japan PGA Match-Play Championship (4)	4 and 2		Yutaka Hagawa
34	12 Jun 1983	Sapporo Tokyu Open (3)	−14 (72-65-71-66=274)	7 strokes	Terry Gale
35	3 Jul 1983	Kanto Pro Championship (4)	−10 (69-68-70-35=242)*	1 stroke	Naomichi Ozaki
36	2 Oct 1983	Japan Open Golf Championship	−7 (72-69-71-69=281)	Playoff	Terry Gale
37	4 Dec 1983	Golf Nippon Series (3)	−7 (70-71-66-74=281)	1 stroke	Masahiro Kuramoto
38	15 Jun 1986	Sapporo Tokyu Open (4)	−15 (65-67-72-69=273)	3 strokes	Shinsaku Maeda
39	27 Jul 1986	Japan PGA Championship (3)	−16 (66-68-69-69=272)	4 strokes	Masashi Ozaki
40	31 Aug 1986	KBC Augusta (3)	−6 (74-72-69-67=282)	1 stroke	Masahiro Kuramoto, Masashi Ozaki
41	7 Sep 1986	Kanto Open (4)	−13 (72-69-70-68=279)	1 stroke	Masashi Ozaki
42	26 Apr 1987	Dunlop International Open1	−11 (69-67-69-72=277)	1 stroke	Tsuneyuki Nakajima, Yoshitaka Yamamoto
43	20 Sep 1987	ANA Open	−6 (72-70-68-72=282)	1 stroke	Tsukasa Watanabe
44	11 Oct 1987	Japan Open Golf Championship (2)	−9 (70-68-71-70=279)	1 stroke	Tsuneyuki Nakajima, Nobuo Serizawa
45	6 Dec 1987	Golf Nippon Series (4)	−7 (67-71=138)*	Shared title with David Ishii
46	1 Oct 1989	Tokai Classic (2)	−13 (67-69-71-68=275)	5 strokes	Pete Izumikawa
47	26 Nov 1989	Casio World Open	−14 (70-70-65-69=274)	1 stroke	Larry Mize
48	27 May 1990	Mitsubishi Galant Tournament	[phone]=289)	3 strokes	Masashi Ozaki, Teruo Sugihara, Tsuyoshi Yoneyama
49	27 Oct 1991	Bridgestone Open	−10 (71-63=134)*	1 stroke	Tsuyoshi Yoneyama
50	31 May 1992	Mitsubishi Galant Tournament (2)	−11 (69-66-71-71=277)	4 strokes	Chen Tze-chung, Saburo Fujiki
51	29 Nov 1992	Casio World Open (2)	−11 (76-66-64-71=277)	4 strokes	Chen Tze-ming

*Note: Tournament shortened to 36/63 holes due to weather.
¹Co-sanctioned by the Asia Golf Circuit

PGA of Japan Tour playoff record (4–9)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent(s)	Result
1	1973	Pepsi-Wilson Tournament	Kosaku Shimada	Won with birdie on sixth extra hole
2	1973	World Friendship	Lu Liang-Huan, Graham Marsh	Lu won with birdie on first extra hole
3	1974	ANA Sapporo Open	Masashi Ozaki	Lost to birdie on first extra hole
4	1976	Tokai Classic	Teruo Sugihara, Shigeru Uchida	Won with birdie on first extra hole
5	1979	Japan Open Golf Championship	Kuo Chie-Hsiung, Koichi Uehara, Yoshitaka Yamamoto	Kuo won with birdie on fourth extra hole Aoki and Uehara eliminated by birdie on first hole
6	1981	Shizuoka Open	Akira Yabe	Won with par on third extra hole
7	1981	Golf Nippon Series	Yutaka Hagawa	Lost to birdie on first extra hole
8	1983	Niigata Open	Hideto Shigenobu, Katsunari Takahashi	Shigenobu won with par on first extra hole
9	1983	Japan Open Golf Championship	Terry Gale	Won with par on second extra hole
10	1984	Chunichi Crowns	Scott Simpson	Lost to par on first extra hole
11	1986	Suntory Open	Graham Marsh	Lost to par on first extra hole
12	1991	Fujisankei Classic	Saburo Fujiki, Brian Jones, Hideki Kase	Fujiki won with birdie on second extra hole
13	1991	Dunlop Phoenix Tournament	Seve Ballesteros, Jay Don Blake, Larry Nelson	Nelson won with par on fourth extra hole Ballesteros eliminated by birdie on third hole Blake eliminated by par on first hole

PGA Tour of Australia wins (1)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runners-up
1	22 Jan 1989	Coca-Cola Classic	−9 (69-73-66-71=279)	1 stroke	Rodger Davis, Peter Fowler, Tsuneyuki Nakajima, Peter O'Malley

Other wins (8)

• 1971 Kanto Pro Championship (Japan)
• 1972 Kanto Pro Championship (Japan)
• 1973 Gold Beck
• 1977 Jun Classic
• 1978 Colgate World Match Play Championship (England)
• 1982 Old Sones Invitational, Daikyo Open
• 1987 Fred Meyer Challenge (with Payne Stewart)

Senior PGA Tour wins (9)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up
1	27 Sep 1992	Nationwide Championship	−8 (70-66=136)*	1 stroke	Raymond Floyd
2	18 Sep 1994	Bank One Senior Classic	−14 (69-64-69=202)	3 strokes	Chi-Chi Rodríguez
3	25 Sep 1994	Brickyard Crossing Championship	−11 (66-67=133)*	1 stroke	Jimmy Powell, Tom Wargo
4	27 Aug 1995	Bank of Boston Senior Classic	−12 (69-66-69=204)	1 stroke	Bob Charles, Hale Irwin
5	26 May 1996	BellSouth Senior Classic	−14 (64-68-70=202)	1 stroke	Graham Marsh, Jay Sigel
6	30 Jun 1996	Kroger Senior Classic	−15 (63-69-66=198)	1 stroke	Mike Hill, Rocky Thompson
7	28 Sep 1997	Emerald Coast Classic	−14 (71-60-65=196)	Playoff	Gil Morgan
8	14 Jun 1998	BellSouth Senior Classic (2)	−18 (62-66-70=198)	2 strokes	Larry Nelson
9	19 May 2002	Instinet Classic	−15 (69-67-65=201)	4 strokes	John Jacobs

*Note: Tournament shortened to 36 holes due to weather.

Senior PGA Tour playoff record (1–4)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent	Result
1	1994	The Transamerica	Kermit Zarley	Lost to birdie on first extra hole
2	1995	The Tradition	Jack Nicklaus	Lost to birdie on third extra hole
3	1997	Emerald Coast Classic	Gil Morgan	Won with par on second extra hole
4	1998	Coldwell Banker Burnet Classic	Leonard Thompson	Lost to birdie on second extra hole
5	2000	State Farm Senior Classic	Leonard Thompson	Lost to birdie on second extra hole

Japan Senior PGA Tour wins (9)

• 1994 Japan Senior Open
• 1995 American Express Grand Slam, Japan Senior Open
• 1996 Japan Senior Open
• 1997 Japan Senior Open
• 2000 N. Cup Senior Open
• 2002 N. Cup Senior Open
• 2007 Japan Senior Open
• 2008 Kinojo Senior Open

Results in major championships

Tournament	1974	1975	1976	1977	1978	1979	1980	1981	1982	1983	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989	1990
Masters Tournament	CUT	CUT		T28	CUT	T34	CUT	T45	CUT	19	T25	T16	CUT	CUT	T25
U.S. Open						T36	2	T11	T30		T16			T14	T50	T33	T33
The Open Championship				CUT	T7	T7	T12	T11	T20		T47				T7		CUT
PGA Championship						CUT		T4	T49	CUT	CUT		T36	CUT	T38	T17	T40

  Top 10

  Did not play

CUT = missed the half-way cut (3rd round cut in 1977 Open Championship)
"T" = tied

Summary

Tournament	Wins	2nd	3rd	Top-5	Top-10	Top-25	Events	Cuts made
Masters Tournament	0	0	0	0	0	4	14	7
U.S. Open	0	1	0	1	1	4	9	9
The Open Championship	0	0	0	0	3	6	9	7
PGA Championship	0	0	0	1	1	2	10	6
Totals	0	1	0	2	5	16	42	29

• Most consecutive cuts made – 7 (1988 Masters – 1990 U.S. Open)
• Longest streak of top-10s – 1 (five times)

Results in The Players Championship

Tournament	1982	1983	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989	1990
The Players Championship	CUT	T43	T15	T7	CUT	T24	T60	CUT	CUT

  Top 10

CUT = missed the halfway cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place

Results in senior major championships

Results not in chronological order before 2012.

Tournament	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002
Senior PGA Championship	3	T5	T5	2	T20	T44	T15	T62	T20	CUT
The Tradition	6	T9	2	T12	2	T13	T28		T47	T35
Senior Players Championship	T5	T3	6	T30	T2	3	T14	T18	T17	21
U.S. Senior Open	T20	10	T3	11	T49	T4	CUT	T47	T2	T18

Tournament	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
Senior PGA Championship	CUT	T27	T62	T28	CUT	CUT	CUT
The Tradition	T20	T53	T32	T67	T71		T57	64
Senior Players Championship	T12	T28	T18	52
U.S. Senior Open	T30			T45	CUT
Senior British Open Championship	T14	T22	T36	T60	CUT	50	CUT	DQ	CUT	CUT

  Top 10

  Did not play

CUT = missed the halfway cut
DQ = disqualified
"T" indicates a tie for a place
Note: The Senior British Open Championship did not become a major until 2003.

Team appearances

• World Cup (representing Japan): 1973, 1974
• Alfred Dunhill Cup (representing Japan): 1985, 1999, 2000
• Nissan Cup/Kirin Cup (representing Japan): 1985, 1987, 1988
• UBS Warburg Cup (representing the Rest of the World): 2001, 2002
• Dynasty Cup (representing Japan): 2003 (non-playing captain), 2005 (non-playing captain)

Honours

• Member of the World Golf Hall of Fame (2004)
• Medal with Purple Ribbon (2008)
• Order of the Rising Sun, 4th Class, Gold Rays with Rosette (2015)
• Person of Cultural Merit (2024)^[7]

See also

• List of golfers with most Japan Golf Tour wins