Toshimitsu Izawa

Toshimitsu Izawa
伊沢利光
Toshimitsu Izawa; 伊沢利光
Personal information
Born	2 March 1968 (age 56); Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan
Height	1.69 m (5 ft 7 in)
Weight	68 kg (150 lb; 10.7 st)
Sporting nationality	Japan
Career
College	Nihon Taiiku University
Turned professional	1989
Current tour(s)	Japan PGA Senior Tour
Former tour(s)	Japan Golf Tour
Professional wins	19
Highest ranking	15 (16 December 2001)
Number of wins by tour
Japan Golf Tour	16
Other	3
Best results in major championships;
Masters Tournament	T4: 2001
PGA Championship	T18: 2003
U.S. Open	T44: 2001
The Open Championship	T22: 2002
Achievements and awards
Japan Golf Tour; money list winner
Japan Golf Tour; money list winner	2001, 2003
Japan Golf Tour; Most Valuable Player	2001, 2003

Toshimitsu Izawa (Japanese: 伊沢利光, born 2 March 1968) is a Japanese professional golfer. He is sometimes known outside Japan as Toshi Izawa.

Early life

Izawa was born in Kanagawa, attended Nihon Taiiku University, and turned professional in 1989.

Professional career

Izawa's career on the Japan Golf Tour developed quite slowly. His first win came in 1995, and he did not make the top ten on the money list until 1999, when he was thirty one years old. He went on to top the money list in 2001 and 2003. In the first of those years he set a record of ¥217,934,583 in earnings which survived though the 2004 season, and his dominant form in Japan lifted him into the top twenty in the Official World Golf Ranking.

He has 16 victories on the Japan Golf Tour and is eighth on the career money list (through 2013).

Izawa has only played a limited number of tournaments outside Japan, but in 2001 he finished tied fourth at the Masters Tournament, which is one of golf's four major championships, and tied for second at the PGA Tour's Nissan Open. In 2002, he won the WGC-World Cup for Japan in partnership with Shigeki Maruyama.

Professional wins (19)

Japan Golf Tour wins (16)

Legend
Flagship events (1)
Japan majors (3)
Other Japan Golf Tour (12)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up
1	1 Oct 1995	Japan Open Golf Championship	−7 (67-70-70-70=277)	1 stroke	Kazuhiko Hosokawa
2	11 Oct 1998	Tokai Classic	−11 (73-66-70-68=277)	3 strokes	Nobumitsu Yuhara
3	25 Jul 1999	Aiful Cup	−14 (67-72-68-67=274)	1 stroke	Toru Taniguchi
4	1 Aug 1999	NST Niigata Open Golf Championship	−19 (64-67-68-70=269)	6 strokes	Kazuhiko Hosokawa
5	2 Jul 2000	JGTO TPC iiyama Cup	−13 (63-70-70=203)*	3 strokes	Kaname Yokoo
6	27 Aug 2000	Hisamitsu-KBC Augusta	−18 (67-65-71-67=270)	4 strokes	Shusaku Sugimoto
7	12 Nov 2000	Sumitomo Visa Taiheiyo Masters	−14 (68-69-66-71=274)	1 stroke	Keiichiro Fukabori
8	27 May 2001	Diamond Cup Tournament	−11 (77-68-64-68=277)	Playoff	Hiroyuki Fujita, Yuji Igarashi
9	23 Sep 2001	Mitsui Sumitomo Visa Taiheiyo Masters (2)	−18 (66-67-68-69=270)	2 strokes	Yūsaku Miyazato (a), Shigeru Nonaka
10	7 Oct 2001	Georgia Tokai Classic (2)	−16 (65-68-70-69=272)	2 strokes	Tomohiro Kondo, Lin Keng-chi
11	21 Oct 2001	Bridgestone Open	−14 (71-67-67-69=274)	1 stroke	Masashi Ozaki
12	28 Oct 2001	Philip Morris K.K. Championship	−16 (67-67-66-72=272)	1 stroke	Hidemichi Tanaka, Toru Taniguchi
13	6 Jul 2003	Japan Golf Tour Championship Shishido Hills Cup (2)	−14 (70-63-68-69=270)	1 stroke	David Smail, Tadahiro Takayama
14	13 Jul 2003	Woodone Open Hiroshima	−13 (66-68-69-72=275)	Playoff	Kiyoshi Murota
15	28 Aug 2005	Under Armour KBC Augusta	−20 (67-65-67-65=264)	5 strokes	Prayad Marksaeng, Ryuichi Oda
16	13 May 2007	Japan PGA Championship	−5 (68-70-72-73=283)	1 stroke	Satoru Hirota

*Note: The 2000 JGTO TPC iiyama Cup was shortened to 54 holes due to weather.

Japan Golf Tour playoff record (2–1)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent(s)	Result
1	1998	Casio World Open	Brian Watts	Lost to birdie on second extra hole
2	2001	Diamond Cup Tournament	Hiroyuki Fujita, Yuji Igarashi	Won with par on first extra hole
3	2003	Woodone Open Hiroshima	Kiyoshi Murota	Won with par on first extra hole

Other wins (1)

Legend
World Golf Championships (1)
Other wins (0)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runners-up
1	15 Dec 2002	WGC-World Cup (with Shigeki Maruyama)	−36 (64-64-58-66=252)	2 strokes	United States − Phil Mickelson and David Toms

Japan PGA Senior Tour wins (2)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runner-up
1	27 Oct 2019	Fukuoka Senior Open Golf Tournament	−8 (67-69=136)	1 stroke	Yoshinobu Tsukada
2	25 Aug 2024	Maruhan Cup Pacific Club Senior	−12 (62-68=130)	1 stroke	Choi Ho-sung

Playoff record

PGA Tour playoff record (0–1)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponents	Result
1	2001	Nissan Open	Robert Allenby, Brandel Chamblee Dennis Paulson, Jeff Sluman, Bob Tway	Allenby won with birdie on first extra hole

Results in major championships

Tournament	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2007
Masters Tournament			T4	CUT	CUT	CUT
U.S. Open			T44	WD		CUT
The Open Championship				T22			CUT
PGA Championship	CUT	T39		T53	T18

Top 10

Did not play

CUT = missed the half-way cut
WD = withdrew
"T" = tied

Results in World Golf Championships

Tournament	2001	2002	2003	2004
Match Play	R32	R32	R16	R64
Invitational		T24	T14
Championship	NT¹		T25

¹Cancelled due to 9/11