| You are at Index> Golfer Index >Hide Tanaka |
| Tanaka Hidemichi |
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| Biographical Information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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CAREER HIGHLIGHTS Hide is fondly known as the "Chibbiko" golfer, which means "little golfer" in Japanese. He started playing golf at his age of 12. Hide is one of the most popular golfers on the Japan Golf Tour Organization (JGTO). Despite his diminuitive size, he is a leader in driving distance on the Tour. As a bachelor, with an admittedly very friendly personality, he is adored by many woman golf fans who follow his play at tournaments. He first astounded Japanese golf fans when he broke 30-year-old course record on the third round of Japan Open in 1995, which was played under extremely tough course conditions and finished 3rd. One month later, he had a sensational win at the Tour's richest event, the Philip Morris Championship, over the legendary Ozaki brothers Jumbo and Joe. He has 15 tournament titles in Japan in his 10-year professional carreer. In 1998, he had his best year ever. He won Japan Open as his first national title and two other events, and finished third on the money list. In 1996, he appeared in four US PGA events and his early round performance on British Open drew international attentions. Although he was already known as a long hitter in Japan, he amazed the US golf media when he led the driving distance stats on the first round of PGA Championship 2000 at Valhalla CC, over Tiger Woods and other prominent world class players. Hide had a solo lead at the 2000 Amex championship in Spain after the third round, where he finished 11th. He also represented Japan by teaming up with long time friend Shigeki Maruyama, at the EMC World Cup of Golf in Buenos Aires in the same year. Hide captured two victories on the Japanese tour and placed 6th on the JGTO money list in 2001. He played in both the British Open and PGA Championshis this year. Hide became eligible to participate in the PGA TOUR Qualifiying School, based upon his outstanding performance in the JGTO. After the second day of the six day tournamnent, he was at the top of the leaderboard. He finished 7th (-18) and earned his 2002 PGA Tour Card at the tournament. He will join Shigeki Maruyama (HAL Sports player) and Kaname Yokoo, as the only Japanese golfers playing on the PGA Tour full time in 2002. |
| Victories(15) |
[Japanese Tour 10] |
[Others 5] |
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Philip Morris Championship(95) Pepsi Ube-Kosan(96) Japan Open(98) DDI Okinawa Open(98) Aiful Cup(98) Acom International(99) Dydo Drinco Shizuoka Open(00) The Crowns(00) Tsuruya Open(01) Mizuno Open(01) |
Mito Green Open(95) Korakuen Cup No.2(95) Hirao Masaaki Pro-Am(96) Hirao Masaaki Pro-Am(98) 2001 Hawaii Pearl Open(01) |
| Best International Finishes |
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British Open('96) NEC World Series('96) Air Canada('00) WGC Amex ('00) |
T32 T23 T22 T11 |
283(67-71-70-75) 286(66-75-75-70) 275(68-67-68-72) 284(71-66-70-77) |
| Full... |
| National Team |
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EMC 2World Cup of Golf('00) |
4 |
266(60-71-67-68) |
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