Kiyoshi Murota

Kiyoshi Murota
室田淳
Personal information
Born (1955-07-26) 26 July 1955 (age 69)
Gunma Prefecture, Japan
Height1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight80 kg (180 lb; 13 st)
Sporting nationality Japan
ResidenceSaitama, Japan
Career
CollegeNippon Sport Science University
Turned professional1982
Current tour(s)Japan PGA Senior Tour
Former tour(s)Japan Golf Tour
Champions Tour
Professional wins33
Number of wins by tour
Japan Golf Tour6
Other27

Kiyoshi Murota (Japanese: 室田淳, born 26 July 1955) is a Japanese professional golfer.

Murota was born in Gunma Prefecture and attended the Nippon Sport Science University. After graduating, he became golf teaching instructor, and was well liked in Japan because of his easy, simple tips to help amateur golfers. While teaching, he would keep trying to become a touring professional. He obtained his Japan Golf Tour card after four tries at qualifying school after 1982.

Murota's first win on the Japan Golf Tour came in 1991 but his best season money wise was 1992, where he finished 6th on the Order of Merit list, earning US$980,000 for the season. He had a total of six career wins on the Japan Tour between 1991 and 2003.

Murota won many tournaments all over Japan, including non-order of merit events and pro-ams all over Japan.

Murota has attempted to travel across the Pacific Ocean and play successfully on the PGA Tour, but that success was not found. In seven career PGA Tour events, his three best finishes came in 1993 at the United Airlines Hawaiian Open (T66), at the 1994 Nissan Los Angeles Open (T20), and at the 1994 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic (T28).[1]

Murota represented Japan in the 1992 World Cup.

Since turning 50, Murota has played on the Japan Senior PGA Tour and the United States-based Champions Tour. Most notably, he won the Japan PGA Senior Championship in 2005, 2009, 2012, and 2015. He won the Order of Merit title in consecutive years on the Japan Senior PGA Tour in 2006 and 2007, winning an event in each of those years. In five events in 2006, he won two, and never finished outside of the top four in winning the Order of Merit. His second Order of Merit year was 2007, included one victory and four runner-up finishes. He has played in a few senior major championships also.[2]

Professional wins (33)

Japan Golf Tour wins (6)

No. Date Tournament Winning score Margin of
victory
Runner(s)-up
1 21 Apr 1991 Bridgestone Aso Open −8 (68-72-68=208) 2 strokes Japan Taisei Inagaki
2 26 Jul 1992 Nikkei Cup −8 (71-69-70-70=280) Playoff Japan Masahiro Kuramoto
3 8 May 1994 Fujisankei Classic E (69-70-73-72=284) 4 strokes Japan Nobuo Serizawa
4 25 Nov 2001 Casio World Open −24 (65-68-63-68=264) 2 strokes Fiji Dinesh Chand
5 24 Mar 2002 Dydo Drinco Shizuoka Open −12 (67-68-72-69=276) 2 strokes South Korea Kim Jong-duck, Japan Masashi Ozaki
6 16 Nov 2003 Mitsui Sumitomo Visa Taiheiyo Masters −16 (66-71-62-73=272) 6 strokes United States Ben Curtis, Japan Hiroyuki Fujita,
South Korea Kim Jong-duck

Japan Golf Tour playoff record (1–2)

No. Year Tournament Opponent Result
1 1992 Nikkei Cup Japan Masahiro Kuramoto Won with birdie on first extra hole
2 1992 Dunlop Phoenix Tournament South Africa David Frost Lost to par on second extra hole
3 2003 Woodone Open Hiroshima Japan Toshimitsu Izawa Lost to par on first extra hole

Other wins (7)

Japan PGA Senior Tour wins (20)

Team appearances

References

  1. ^ "Kiyoshi Murota". Archived from the original on 20 August 2008. Retrieved 10 October 2009.
  2. ^ Senior PGA Championship profile