Shuri Sakuma Wins TOTO Japan Classic With Closing 64 for First LPGA Tour Title

• Shuri Sakuma won the TOTO Japan Classic by four strokes.
• Her bogey-free final-round 64 was 8-under par.
• Aki Iwai was second, with Erika Hara third.

Shuri Sakuma won her first LPGA Tour title on Sunday. She closed with a bogey-free 8-under 64 at the Taiheiyo Club Minori Course in Omitama to win the TOTO Japan Classic by four strokes from countrywoman Aki Iwai.

The 72-hole total of 20-under 268 earned Sakuma $315,000 and LPGA Tour membership, which she has deferred to the 2027 season. She has won eight times on the JLPGA Tour, four of them this year. She made six birdies on the back nine, five of them in a row from the 11th to the 15th.

This was her fourth start in the event, a year after she finished solo fourth. She is the first JLPGA member to win it since Rio Takeda in 2024. She is also the second non-member to win on the LPGA Tour this season, after Shiho Kuwaki took the AIG Women’s Open at Royal Lytham.

Sakuma is the fifth Japanese winner on tour in 2026. Before 2025 there had never been more than three in a single year. Sakuma’s win, Miyu Yamashita’s Maybank Championship title defence last week and Yuri Yoshida’s victory in Korea gave Japanese players three of the four events on the LPGA’s late-season Asian swing. She is also the third player this season to win in her home country outside the United States, after Jeeno Thitikul at the Honda LPGA Thailand and Ruoning Yin at the Buick LPGA Shanghai.

Where did Iwai’s lead go?

Iwai carried a one-shot lead into Sunday on 15-under, but bogeyed the par-5 2nd. Birdies at the 9th and 12th got her back to 16-under. A double bogey at the par-3 13th then dropped her to 14-under. She birdied the 15th and 17th to sign for a 71, finishing solo second on 272.

The 24-year-old led the field with 23 birdies for the week. Her runner-up finish equals her best of the season, a tie for second at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship. She is projected to climb from 13th to eighth in the Race to the CME Globe.

Hara’s best result

Erika Hara closed with a 2-under 70 to finish solo third on 15-under 273, her best result on the LPGA Tour. Her previous best was a tie for eighth at the ISPS HANDA Women’s Scottish Open in July. The two-time Japan Women’s Open champion leads the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year race and is projected to move from 40th to 32nd in the Race to the CME Globe.

Thailand’s Arpichaya Yubol, who started the day one shot back, closed with a level-par 72. She shared fourth on 14-under with Japan’s Yuna Araki, who shot 70.

Defending champion Nasa Hataoka, who led after two rounds, closed with a 71. She finished in a four-way tie for sixth, seven shots behind Sakuma.

Related: Nelly Korda Clinches 2026 Rolex Player of the Year With Three Events Remaining

The award takes Korda's LPGA Hall of Fame tally to 26 points. She is one short of induction, with The ANNIKA and the CME Group Tour Championship still to play.

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