Tokyo, Japan: Sayaka Teraoka wasn’t among the favourites to win the 63rd Japan Women’s Amateur Championship when she turned up at Gifu Seki Country Club (GSCC).

Yet the player sitting at 1,479th on the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) at the start of the week walked off with the title, upstaging a strong field including Mizuki Hashimoto, winner of last year’s Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific and leader of the triumphant Japanese team at last month’s Queen Sirikit Cup.

With rounds of 70, 69, 69 and 68 over GSCC’s East Course, Teraoka posted a four-day aggregate of 12-under-par 276 – six strokes ahead of runner-up Kano Nakamura, the joint third-round leader. 

Hashimoto had to settle for a share of ninth place on one-under 287, level with eight other players including her Queen Sirikit Cup team-mate Miku Ueta. Ayaka Tezuka, the third member of the winning Japanese team in Singapore, struggled to 64th place on 301.

Thanks to her stunning success, Teraoka has soared 1,236 positions to 243rd in the WAGR standings, the biggest jump on this week’s table.

It was a second notable victory in successive months for Teraoka, who took top honours at the Kansai Women’s Amateur Championship in May. On that occasion she also finished ahead of Hashimoto and Ami Yamashita, the leading player in the stroke play segment at last week’s Women’s Amateur Championship in England.

With a joint 26th place finish at the Japan Women’s Amateur Championship, Reika Arakawa moved up 14 places to 13th, while Yuna Araki climbed 38 spots to 34th after sharing ninth place.

Such is the current strength of the women’s amateur game in the country, that Japan now boasts no fewer than 10 players in the WAGR’s top-50.