Kensei Hirata is confident he can rise to the occasion when he takes on the elite PGA Tour field at the ZOZO Championship which gets underway at the Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club on Thursday.
Related: ‘My last name being Morikawa, winning in Japan has been special’
Hirata has been one of the revelations on the JGTO this season where he has won four times and currently leads the Money Ranking.
An enthralling clash now awaits the 23-year-old with the ZOZO Championship featuring three of the world’s top 10 players including World No 2 Xander Schauffele, defending champion Collin Morikawa (4), and home favourite Hideki Matsuyama (7).
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“At the beginning of this season, playing in this tournament was one of my goals so I’m happy to be able to play in this tournament especially as the leader of the money list and I’m definitely excited for this event,” said Hirata.
When asked if the weight of expectations as the money leader puts additional pressure on him, Hirata said: “I don’t feel any different this year, I’ll just have to prepare myself as usual. However, I feel like I’m a better player than last year, so this week I hope I can see some improvements.”
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Takumi Kanaya – a seven-time JGTO winner – is among the 14 Tour members who will feature in the 78-man field at the no-cut event that is co-sanctioned with the PGA Tour. Like Hirata, he is also feeling upbeat about his chances
“I’m confident of doing well against the top players from the PGA Tour this week. I have been playing good golf and I’m ready to start tomorrow.”
Kanaya earned his place at the ZOZO Championship as one of the top eight players from the money ranking. The others include Hirata, Ryosuke Kinoshita, Shugo Imahira, Yuto Katsuragawa, Yuta Sugiura, Ren Yonezawa and Takashi Ogiso.
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Hiroshi Iwata secured his spot by winning the BMW Japan Golf Tour Championship Mori Building Cup in June while five JGTO exemptions were given to Taisei Shimizu, Ryo Ishikawa, Naoyuki Kataoka, Kaito Onishi and Takahiro Hataji.
Meanwhile, Morikawa is ready to put up a stout defence of his title despite going through a winless year since his victory at the Zozo Championship last year.
“Look, winning’s tough. No matter what it is, winning is tough. You have to learn how to win. Every tournament’s different, you never know how you’re going to play on a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday,” said Morikawa.
“You’ve got to treat each day and each shot and take everything that’s in front of you, and not take anything for granted.”
“But I’m always pretty confident no matter how the game is and no matter how things are playing out each time I tee up.”
