Tokyo, Japan: Keita Nakajima has regained top billing in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR).

Second-place in the Token Homemade Cup on the Japan Golf Tour, his third consecutive top-10 finish on that circuit, has seen Nakajima rise 10 places to replace American Pierceson Coody as the world’s top player.

The 20-year-old Nippon Sport Science University student briefly rose to the WAGR summit in late November last year after top-10 finishes in the Mitsui Sumitomo VISA Taiheiyo Masters and the Dunlop Phoenix.

He is one of only three Japanese males to top The R&A-administered rankings, following in the footsteps of new Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama and Takumi Kanaya. Matsuyama was number one in 2010, while Kanaya held the number one ranking last year before turning professional.

Former amateur national team-mates, Nakajima and Kanaya were involved in a thrilling head-to-head duel in the weather-hit Token Homemade Cup, which was reduced to 54 holes following the cancellation of round three.

Kanaya eventually prevailed by one stroke to move up to 76th spot in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR). He is now the second-highest rated Japanese male professional golfer, behind Matsuyama, putting himself in position to line-up in July’s rescheduled Tokyo Olympics.

It was not the first time that Nakajima and Kanaya have battled for titles.

They were members of the four-strong gold medal-winning Japan men’s team at the 2018 Asian Games at Jakarta’s Pondok Indah Golf Course. There, it was Nakajima who stole the headlines, upstaging Kanaya by also claiming the individual gold medal.

Two months later the tables were turned when Kanaya savoured success in the 10th edition of the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship at Singapore’s Sentosa Golf Club, two strokes ahead of Nakajima, who shared second place with Indian Rayhan Thomas.

Among other notable performances in 2019, Nakajima was runner-up in the Japan Open Amateur Championship and the Australian Master of the Amateurs, where he was edged out by Chinese Taipei's Yu Chun-an in a play-off at Royal Melbourne Golf Club.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Nakajima’s competitive appearances in 2020 were limited, although he enjoyed a good run of form ahead of the Dunlop Phoenix where his eighth-place finish saw him take the WAGR's number one spot for the first time. The week before that, he was third in the Mitsui Sumitomo VISA Taiheiyo Masters, having been tied for the lead during the final round.

But his bid to become the Japan Golf Tour's fifth amateur to win on the circuit fell narrowly short, ending two shots behind the triumphant Jinichiro Kozuma.