TOKYO —

A day after becoming the first Japanese player to win back-to-back titles on the LPGA Tour, Ai Miyazato was quick to shrug off her achievement after arriving at Narita airport on a flight from Singapore on Monday. ‘‘I did my best and as luck would have it I was able to get this result. I don’t feel that I have done anything great,’’ said Miyazato after victories at the season-opening Honda PTT LPGA Thailand on Feb 21 and the HSBC Women’s Championships one week later.
   
It was her third career title, the first of which came at the Evian Masters last July.
   
Despite her modesty, Miyazato is only the second woman in 44 years to sweep the first two events of the season since Marilynn Smith accomplished the feat in 1966.
   
She was greeted in the airport lobby by a throng of about 300 adoring fans.
   
Asked about her newfound success in her fifth year on the women’s toughest tour, the 24-year-old pointed to the training she did to improve her short game in the off-season.
   
‘‘I’m doing much better at crucial points and I think I’ve grown mentally,’’ she said.
   
She said her father Masaru teased her when she called her parents the previous day after her victory. ‘‘He said, ‘Are you really my daughter?’‘’
   
Miyazato, who beat American Cristie Kerr by two strokes with a 10-under 278 total on Sunday, will appear in the season-opening tournament on the Japanese tour at the Daikin Orchid Ladies getting under way in her hometown of Okinawa on Friday.
 
Miyazato is aiming to become the Player of the Year and money rankings leader on the LPGA Tour, but she said she is taking things one day at a time.

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3 Comments

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  ratpack at 09:19 AM JST - 2nd March

  Way to go Ai!!! Good to see you putting things together in the senior ranks the way you did so effortlessly in the junior ranks.

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  nondakure at 12:39 PM JST - 2nd March

  Miyazato-san is a great player with a great personality and lots of charisma. I watched her last September at the LPGA Samsung-sponsered event for the top 20 players, held on the Torrey Pines South course. She should have won that event (finished 2nd), except her agressive play on the 5-par No. 18 led to a couple of water balls on two of the rounds, including the final round. She hits a mid-height draw with the driver, fairway woods, and hybrids. Not the best shot shape for a long carry 2nd shot over water on that hole (a high fade is best). If I was her caddie, she would have won that tournament.

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  presto345 at 04:43 PM JST - 2nd March

  Excellent performance. And she is very modest about it. Great personality indeed!

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