The TOTO Japan Classic is the final event of the LPGA Tour season that will be contested in Asia and marks just the third event remaining on the 2025 calendar. There are a slew of Japan’s top players in the field, several of whom are LPGA Tour rookies, like defending champion Rio Takeda and major winner Miyu Yamashita. They will be joined by some of the game’s most recognizable names, players like 11-time LPGA Tour winner and three-time major champion Minjee Lee, as well as 35 athletes who are members of the JLPGA Tour, including former Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 1 Jiyai Shin.

Take a deeper look at just one of the featured groups teeing it up on Thursday at the TOTO Japan Classic.

Thursday, 10:01 a.m. – Miyu Yamashita/Minjee Lee/Shuri Sakuma

Miyu Yamashita became the second athlete, alongside Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul, to tally multiple victories on the LPGA Tour this season after beating Hye-Jin Choi and Hannah Green in a playoff last week at the Maybank Championship. It was the rookie’s second career LPGA Tour victory and first since she won her first major at the AIG Women’s Open at Royal Porthcawl Golf Club over the summer, what was the second major title to be collected by a Japanese athlete this season. In addition to those two victories, the 24-year-old has recorded nine additional top-10 finishes in her 22 starts ahead of this week’s TOTO Japan Classic, five of which are T5s or better. This is her fourth time competing in this championship, and in her three previous appearances in this event as a non-member, Yamashita tied for fifth in 2022, tied for 27th in 2023 and tied for 12th in 2024. According to KPMG Performance Insights, Yamashita is ranked inside the top five in several statistical categories this season, including strokes gained putting (1, +1.33), putts made from 10 or more feet (1, 184), bogey avoidance (3, 11.2 percent), rounds in the 60s (3, 39) and scoring average (69.82), additionally ranking fifth in strokes gained total (1.93). She is currently atop the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year rankings, leading her fellow countrywoman Rio Takeda by 206 points, and Yamashita trails only Thitikul in the Rolex Player of the Year race, doing so by 25 points.

Minjee Lee is making her seventh start in the TOTO Japan Classic this week and will be working to add a 12th tally to her career win column in a tournament that’s seen her fare pretty well over the years. The Australian has finished inside the top 15 four times in her six prior starts in this event, most recently coming in third in 2019 at Seta Golf Course. This is her 21st start of the 2025 LPGA Tour season, and in addition to the major title she won at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Fields Ranch East in June, Lee has finished in the top 10 seven other times, last doing so in back-to-back events at the Buick LPGA Shanghai (3) and the BMW Ladies Championship (T10). Looking at KPMG Performance Insights data, in her last 12 starts, Lee has earned four top-three finishes, including her victory, carded 12 straight top 25s, made birdie or better 26.2 percent of the time, shot 108-under par and gained 2.47 strokes total. She is currently ranked inside the top 20 this season in strokes gained total (2, +2.45), strokes gained putting (2, +1.22), strokes gained off the tee (10, +0.64) and strokes gained tee to green (18, +1.00), also sitting at second in scoring average (69.59) and third in both birdie or better percentage (24.96 percent) and birdie or better average per round (4.49). Lee is the highest-ranked player in the field at the TOTO Japan Classic, currently sitting at third in the world rankings.

JLPGA member Shuri Sakuma is competing for the fourth consecutive year in the TOTO Japan Classic and is looking to improve upon her career-best T22 finish that she recorded back in 2022. This is her sixth start ever on the LPGA Tour, as, along with her appearances in the Tour’s annual event in Japan, she has also competed in the previous two editions of the AIG Women’s Open, tying for 60th at the Old Course at St Andrews and missing the cut earlier this year at Royal Porthcawl Golf Club. She has four career wins on the JLPGA, all four of which she has collected this season, and hails from Kawagoe, Japan.

All times local. For a full list of tee times, please click here. For more information on how to watch the TOTO Japan Classic, please click here.

Featured Group: 2025 TOTO Japan Classic

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