Akie Iwai bests sister and comes out on top of leaderboard in first-ever LPGA pairing of twins

TARZANA, Calif. — Japanese star Akie Iwai has dreams of winning a major and playing with her twin sister, Chisato, in a final pairing on the LPGA Tour. The 22-year-old identical twins took a significant step in that direction as they were paired together for the first time in an LPGA event Saturday in the third round of the JM Eagle LA Championship.

It’s the first time the LPGA has a set of twins on tour, and the first time twins played together in a round.

Akie has lofty career goals, and a special one that includes Chisato.

“I want to just win a tournament. I want to win at least one tournament this year. Not only majors but also regular tournaments, yes,” Akie said. “But my dream is that I want to win major, and then I want to play final group with Chisato, my sister.”

Akie will be in the final group Sunday after shooting an eight-under-par 64 to tie for the 54-hole lead at 17 under. She, Ingrid Lindblad—another rookie—and veteran Lauren Coughlin are all tied at the top.

The twins are rookies, travel together and spend plenty of time with each other. They went to a Dodgers game Monday night to see Shohei Ohtani in person. But the best activity of the week in Los Angeles was playing in the same pairing in a pro event. They played together three times on the Japan LPGA Tour.

On the course, Akie has a more serious demeanor than Chisato, who smiles a lot through her round, even after making a bogey.

“It was so much fun playing all day and people were cheering for us,” Chisato told Golf Digest. “I’m so happy. Me and Akie had a good day. Just happy.”

They are identical by birth but certainly don’t look identical. Chisato’s hair is long and Akie’s short. When they both had short hair in junior high school, it was hard for anyone to tell them apart.

“I look at pictures and I can’t tell,” Chisato said with a laugh. Imagine not being able to positively identity yourself, that’s how similar their facial features are, and imagine what it was like for their family and friends.

One fan following the group said he didn’t know they were related until he looked at the standard bearer’s sign that read: “Iwai, C. Iwai, A.” The only difference was their scores. Chisato shot a two-under 70 Saturday and is tied for 12th.

Their golf bags are nearly identical, too. They have all the same sponsors, but Akie’s bag is blue, and Chisato’s pink. They’ve walked a very similar path to get here, each winning three times last year on the Japan LPGA Tour. They each earned their LPGA Tour cards for this season by finishing in the top five of the final qualifying in the LPGA Q-Series.

The only difference in sponsorship deals is that Akie wears Nike and Chisato New Balance.

“She played so good today,” Chisato said. “We [will see Sunday]. No one knows what will happen. I’ll just try to catch up to Akie today.”

The twins didn’t talk much during their round Saturday except to offer congratulatory words after good shots and good holes. The focus was palpable.

“[It wasn’t different] because [I look at it as she’s] just another player, an opponent,” Akie said. “But it was really fun. Really, really fun. A good experience.”

Akie is one minute older and she likes to playfully hold that over her sister when others are around. A set of twin girls was in their gallery, and they had an opportunity to chat with them after the round and take photos. Akie bonded with the twin who was older.

Akie chipped in for an eagle on the first hole Saturday and that got her off to a great start. It was better than the way her morning started. She was supposed to meet her team at 10 a.m. but she missed her alarm, so her day started with a little chaos that might have sent another golfer’s day into a tailspin, but not the ever-calm Akie. Her day got better.

“Playing is my focus is on my game,” Chisato said. “But today, [Akie] had many short birdie putts, and I say that’s great. Great shot. But I basically focus on my game.”

This isn’t the first time Akie has been atop the leaderboard this year. She led the LPGA Thailand event after the first and second rounds and finished second to Angel Yin. Akie shot a course-record 61 in the final round on Sunday, making eagle on the 18th hole to finish one back. She shot a 10-under 62 in the first round and finished at 27 under to earn $158,182.

The Iwai twins are learning English and really have grown in that department since January. They lean on their English-speaking caddies for practice as well.

“I don't think she understood everything I said because she's still learning some English, but I was impressed about how she played the first two days,” said Lindblad. “… I saw the twins played together today. I think Akie was ranked (26) in the world or something, so it was very cool to play with her yesterday. I thought she played well the first two days. She had one or two hiccups [Friday]. It was very fun playing with her.”

Akie hopes for another fun round Sunday will play in the final pairing with Coughlin. Asked what she’ll do Saturday night, Akie said she’ll probably watch the third round back on YouTube.

And there will surely be plenty of smiles watching history of her and her twin sister.