Tokyo, Japan: New Zealanders Eunseo Choi and Cooper Moore took centre stage on day two of The Royal Junior.
In-form Choi carded a second-round of even-par 72 at The Royal Golf Club to displace Rianne Malixi of the Philippines at the top of the leaderboard in the girls’ segment.
In the boys’ category, Moore conjured a three-under 69, a nine-stroke improvement on his opening-day effort and the best round of the week to date in the third edition of the 54-hole event.
With a 36-hole aggregate of three-over 147, Moore will head into Sunday’s final round in a share of top place with Japan’s Reo Maruo.
Winner of the 2024 New Zealand Women’s Stroke Play Championship last month and 118th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), Choi also has a two-day tally of 147.
Hot on her heels on 148 are Japan’s Aisa Saito and Malixi, who is bidding to improve on her third place finish here last year.
With a tightly-packed leaderboard in both the boys’ and girls’ events, it promises to be an enthralling final day in what is one of the foremost tournaments for high school students in Japan.
Moore, runner-up in the New Zealand Under-16 Championship last year, is 542nd in the WAGR. But he displayed his potential with an impressive round that saw him go out in two-under 34 and come back in 35 to record the first sub-70 score of the tournament.
However, with just seven shots separating the top-14, another strong round will be required if he’s to pull off the biggest win of his career.
Lurking menacingly in third place on 148 is Shinichi Suzuki of the Philippines with China’s Gu Liangliang two stroke further back in equal fourth with the Japanese trio of Komei Onishi, Sakutoshi Yamazaki and Kota Takeda.
Despite shooting a 79, first-round leader Takahide Kiyomoto is also still in contention on 151.
In the girls’ tournament, there are just five strokes between pace-setting Choi and Japan’s Mamika Shinchi in joint 14th place.
Shinchi, 42nd in the WAGR, won January’s Australian Women’s Amateur, was tied for 10th at February’s Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific in Thailand and finished 29th at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur a fortnight ago.
If Choi is to emerge triumphant, she’ll also have to overcome three other top-100 WAGR players – Malixi (33rd), Indian Avani Prashanth (50th) and Korean Park Seo-jin (93rd).
Prashanth and Park are just two shots behind Choi in a share of fourth place.
LEADING SECOND-ROUND SCORES
Boys
147 – Cooper Moore (New Zealand) 78-69; Reo Maruo (Japan) 73-74
148 – Shinichi Suzuki (Philippines) 75-73
150 – Komei Onishi (Japan) 78-72; Gu Liangliang (China) 77-73; Sakutoshi Yamazaki (Japan) 76-74; Kota Takeda (Japan) 74-76
151 – Kiyomoto Takahide (Japan) 72-79
152 – Kaito Hashizume (Japan) 75-77
153 – Thanawin Lee (Thailand) 78-75; Lim Tae-young (Korea) 78-75
Girls
147 – Eunseo Choi (New Zealand) 75-72
148 – Aisa Saito (Japan) 76-72; Rianne Malixi (Philippines) 72-76
149 – Lee Yun-seo (Korea) 79-70; Park Seo-jin (Korea) 78-71; Avani Prashanth (India) 74-75
150 – Aika Ito (Japan) 78-72; Rion Oka (Japan) 77-73; Mana Yoshizaki (Japan) 76-74
151 – Aira Nagasawa (Japan) 79-72; Seara Ito (Japan) 76-75; Pimpisa Rubrong (Thailand) 75-76; Tsukiha Nakashima (Japan) 74-77
