Solid Start for Ex-AAC Winners in JGTO Season-Opener

Nagoya, Japan: Former Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship (AAC) winners Takumi Kanaya and Keita Nakajima made a bright start to the 2023 Japan Golf Tour Organisation (JGTO).

In the JGTO’s season-opening Token Homemate Cup, Kanaya, victorious in the AAC is 2018, and Nakajima, triumphant in 2021, finished in a share of eighth place.

With 72-hole totals of 14-under-par 270 at the Token Tado Country Club, the duo ended six shots behind Shugo Imahira, who picked up his eighth JGTO title courtesy of a closing 63.

Two other ex-AAC participants also featured in the top-10 at the Token Homemate Cup.

One stroke ahead of Kanaya and Nakajima in joint fifth place were Mikumu Horikawa and Takashi Ogiso.

Horikawa made three AAC appearances with a best effort of second place at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in 2014, seven shots behind runaway winner Antonio Murdaca of Australia.

Ogiso’s only AAC start came in 2015 at Hong Kong’s Clearwater Bay Golf & Country Club where he was in second place after 36 holes. Then the weather intervened with the third round being cancelled before Ogiso was blown off course with a closing 78 that saw him end in a share of 27th place.

The Token Homemate Cup was also notable for another impressive display from amateur Yuta Sugiura, winner of the individual title at last November’s Asia-Pacific Amateur Team Championship for the Nomura Cup at Manila Southwoods in the Philippines.

Thanks to four sub-70 returns at Token Tado Country Club, Sugiura ended equal 11th on 13-under 271 – a result that may see him break into the top-20 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.