The Aiful Cup was a professional golf tournament held in Japan from 1998 to 2006. It was an event on the Japan Golf Tour and was played at a variety of courses throughout Japan. The final event in 2006 was titled The Golf Tournament in Omaezaki with a purse of ¥120,000,000, with ¥24,000,000 going to the winner.
The tournament was originally planned to be held as the "Aiful Cup Golf Tournament" under the special sponsorship of Aiful, a major consumer finance company.
However, Aiful's violations of the Money Lending Business Control and Regulation Law, including aggressive sales activities, severe collections, and illegal interest rates, were discovered and became a social problem. The 2006 tournament was held under the same name as the original agreement (120 million yen prize money, 24 million yen prize money for the winner, etc.).[1] However, the tournament was abandoned after 2007 due to "various circumstances surrounding the consumer finance industry" (for the same reason, the "ACOM International" and the "LPGA Takefuji Classic" were also abandoned).[2]
The Shizuoka Country Hamaoka Course, the venue of the tournament, used to be the site of the "DAIDOH DRINKO Shizuoka Open" (sponsored by Shizuoka Shimbun and Shizuoka Broadcasting) held every year in late March.
| Years | Venue | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Shizuoka Country Hamaoka Course & Hotel | Omaezaki, Shizuoka |
| 2004–2005 | Daisen Ark Country Club | Hōki, Tottori |
| 2002–2003 | Golf Club Twin Fields (Gold Course) | Komatsu, Ishikawa |
| 1999–2002 | Ajigasawa Kogen Golf Course | Ajigasawa, Aomori |
| 1998 | Aomori Country Club | Aomori, Aomori |
| Year | Winner | Score | To par | Margin of victory |
Runner(s)-up | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Golf Tournament in Omaezaki | ||||||
| 2006 |  Toru Taniguchi |
273 | −11 | Playoff | Tomohiro Kondo Hur Suk-ho
| |
| Aiful Cup | ||||||
| 2005 | Tatsuhiko Takahashi |
268 | −16 | 1 stroke | Yasuaki Takashima
| |
| 2004 | Takuya Taniguchi |
270 | −14 | 2 strokes | Katsumasa Miyamoto
| |
| 2003 | Taichi Teshima |
269 | −19 | Playoff | Katsumasa Miyamoto
| |
| 2002 | Yasuharu Imano |
268 | −20 | 1 stroke | Toshimitsu Izawa
| |
| 2001 |  Lin Keng-chi |
270 | −18 | Playoff | Toru Suzuki
| |
| 2000 |  Dean Wilson |
271 | −17 | 1 stroke | Eiji Mizoguchi
| |
| 1999 |  Toshimitsu Izawa |
274 | −14 | 1 stroke | Toru Taniguchi
| |
| 1998 | Hidemichi Tanaka |
273 | −15 | 1 stroke | Toshimitsu Izawa Tatsuo Takasaki
| |
Source:[3]
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