Mizuno Open

The Mizuno Open (ミズノオープン, Mizuno ōpun) is a professional golf tournament played in Japan. Founded in 1971, it has been a Japan Golf Tour event since 1979. Since 1998, the event has been prefixed Gateway to The Open (全英への道, Zen'ei eno michi), with the top finishers gaining exemptions into The Open Championship.

Gateway to The Open Mizuno Open

Tournament information
Location	Kasaoka, Okayama, Japan
Established	1971
Course(s)	JFE Setonaikai Golf Club
Par	72
Length	7,461 yards (6,822 m)
Tour(s)	Japan Golf Tour
Format	Stroke play
Prize fund	¥100,000,000
Month played	May/June
Tournament record score
Aggregate	266 Norio Suzuki (1980)
To par	−20 as above
Current champion
Mikiya Akutsu
Location map
Setonaikai Golf Club Location in Japan Show map of Japan Setonaikai Golf Club Location in the Okayama Prefecture Show map of Okayama Prefecture

The Mizuno Open has been held at several courses, most frequently at JFE Setonaikai Golf Club in Kasaoka, Okayama, which has hosted all but six renewals since 1998. The purse for the 2024 event was ¥100,000,000, with ¥20,000,000 going to the winner.

History

The Mizuno Open was founded in 1971 as the Mizuno Tournament with both men's and women's events running side-by-side. It was restricted to golfers using at least ten Mizuno clubs. In 1979, fifty leading professionals in Japan were also eligible to compete as the tournament counted towards the Japan Golf Tour money-list ranking for the first time. In 1983 it became a full tour event and in 1985 changed its name to the Mizuno Open. From 1991, the women's event was played separately.^[1]

Since 1998, the event has been prefixed "Gateway to The Open", with the top four finishers in the tournament that were not already qualified gaining exemptions into The Open Championship. There has also been a mini-money list of Japan Golf Tour events up to and including the Mizuno Open that earns two exemptions into The Open. From 2007 to 2010 The Mizuno Open merged with the Yomiuri Open to form the Gateway to The Open Mizuno Open Yomiuri Classic.

Tournament hosts

Years	Venue	Location
1998–2006, 2011–2017, 2021–2025	Setonaikai Golf Club	Kasaoka, Okayama
2018–2019	The Royal Golf Club	Hokota, Ibaraki
2007–2010	Yomiuri Country Club	Nishinomiya, Hyōgo
1976–1997	Tokinodai Country Club	Hakui, Ishikawa
1971–1975	Anegasaki Country Club	Ichihara, Chiba

Winners

Year	Winner	Score	To Par	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up	Ref.
Gateway to The Open Mizuno Open
2025	Mikiya Akutsu	275	−13	4 strokes	Riki Kawamoto Song Young-han
2024	Ryosuke Kinoshita	276	−12	2 strokes	Koh Gun-taek	[2]
2023	Kensei Hirata	271	−17	Playoff	Keita Nakajima	[3]
2022	Scott Vincent	276	−12	Playoff	Anthony Quayle	[4]
2021	Juvic Pagunsan	199[a]	−17	3 strokes	Ryutaro Nagano	[5]
2020	Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2019	Yuta Ikeda	281	−7	1 stroke	Chan Kim	[6]
2018	Shota Akiyoshi	287	−1	1 stroke	Michael Hendry Masahiro Kawamura Masanori Kobayashi	[7]
2017	Chan Kim	273	−15	5 strokes	Michael Hendry	[8]
2016	Kim Kyung-tae	277	−11	1 stroke	Kodai Ichihara Shugo Imahira Lee Sang-hee	[9]
2015	Taichi Teshima	273	−15	2 strokes	Scott Strange	[10]
2014	Jang Dong-kyu	273	−15	3 strokes	Juvic Pagunsan	[11]
2013	Brendan Jones (2)	269	−19	3 strokes	Kim Kyung-tae	[12]
2012	Brad Kennedy	271	−17	3 strokes	Toshinori Muto Toru Taniguchi	[13]
2011	Hwang Jung-gon	275	−13	1 stroke	Kim Kyung-tae	[14]
Gateway to The Open Mizuno Open Yomiuri Classic
2010	Shunsuke Sonoda	201[a]	−15	3 strokes	Toru Taniguchi	[15]
2009	Ryo Ishikawa	275	−13	3 strokes	David Smail	[16]
2008	Prayad Marksaeng	269	−15	1 stroke	Azuma Yano	[17]
2007	Lee Dong-hwan	204[b]	−12	4 strokes	Lee Seong-ho Lin Keng-chi Toshinori Muto Achi Sato Hideto Tanihara Masaya Tomida
Gateway to The Open Mizuno Open
2006	Hur Suk-ho	274	−14	3 strokes	Tatsuhiko Ichihara David Smail
2005	Chris Campbell	278	−10	Playoff	David Smail Tadahiro Takayama
2004	Brendan Jones	274	−14	Playoff	Hiroaki Iijima
2003	Todd Hamilton	278	−10	1 stroke	Brendan Jones
2002	Dean Wilson	277	−11	1 stroke	Kiyoshi Miyazato
2001	Hidemichi Tanaka	272	−16	3 strokes	Eduardo Herrera
2000	Yasuharu Imano	274	−14	1 stroke	Toshimitsu Izawa Katsumasa Miyamoto
1999	Eduardo Herrera	274	−14	2 strokes	Tsukasa Watanabe
1998	Brandt Jobe	275	−13	4 strokes	Yoshi Mizumaki Toru Suzuki
Mizuno Open
1997	Brian Watts (3)	278	−10	2 strokes	Toshimitsu Izawa
1996	Yoshinori Kaneko	270	−18	4 strokes	Shinichi Yokota
1995	Brian Watts (2)	273	−15	3 strokes	Rick Gibson
1994	Brian Watts	280	−8	Playoff	Eduardo Herrera Yoshinori Kaneko Koichi Suzuki
1993	Seiki Okuda	280	−8	1 stroke	Wayne Grady Tateo Ozaki Teruo Sugihara
1992	Tōru Nakamura	282	−6	1 stroke	Saburo Fujiki Brian Jones
1991	Roger Mackay	207[a]	−9	Playoff	Satoshi Higashi
1990	Brian Jones	272	−16	4 strokes	Tsuneyuki Nakajima
1989	Akiyoshi Ohmachi	283	−5	2 strokes	Brian Jones Fujio Kobayashi Masahiro Kuramoto Tsuneyuki Nakajima
1988	Yoshimi Niizeki	280	−8	Playoff	Seiichi Kanai
1987	David Ishii	272	−16	8 strokes	Chen Tze-ming Tōru Nakamura
1986	Tsuneyuki Nakajima	239[c]	−11	6 strokes	Tsukasa Watanabe
1985	Tateo Ozaki Katsunari Takahashi	205[a]	−11	Title shared
Mizuno Tournament
1984	Kikuo Arai (2)	279	−9	1 stroke	Naomichi Ozaki	[18]
1983	Eitaro Deguchi	277	−11	3 strokes	Hsieh Min-Nan Tsuneyuki Nakajima Shigeru Uchida
1982	Teruo Sugihara	282	−6
1981	Kikuo Arai	274	−12	2 strokes	Shigeru Uchida	[19]
1980	Norio Suzuki	266	−20	6 strokes	Yoshikazu Yokoshima	[20]
1979	Mitsuhiro Kitta	272	−16	2 strokes	Teruo Sugihara Ichiro Teramoto
1978	Akio Kanemoto	276	−12	1 stroke	Shigeru Uchida
1977	Masaji Kusakabe (2)	283	−5	Playoff	Shigeru Uchida
1976	Masaji Kusakabe	215	−6	2 strokes	Han Chang-sang Shigeru Uchida Takemitsu Uranishi Yuki Watanabe
1975	Shigeru Uchida (2)	215	−1	3 strokes	Takashi Aoki
1974	Shigeru Uchida	210	−6	1 stroke	Shichiro Enomoto
1973	Shichiro Enomoto	208	−8	3 strokes	Akio Kanemoto
1972	Kazuo Yoshikawa
1971	Makoto Yamaguchi	214	−2	2 strokes	Shichiro Enomoto

Source:^[1]

Notes

1. Shortened to 54 holes due to rain.
2. Shortened to 54 holes due to fog.
3. Shortened to 63 holes due to rain.