Australia’s Anthony Quayle will be aiming to ditch his bridesmaid’s tag as he hopes to clinch his maiden JGTO title in the 63rd edition of The Crowns – one of the longest-running events on Tour, which starts on Thursday.
After being absent from the last two tournaments, the 28-year-old is returning for his second appearance of the season at the Nagoya Golf Club’s Wago Course in Aichi Prefecture.
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Quayle has been a consistent performer at this venue as he has not missed a cut and finished in the top five twice on all five occasions to date.
During his debut season in 2018, it was at The Crowns that Quayle registered his runner-up finish on JGTO, coming in joint second to eventual winner Y.E Yang, the 2009 US PGA Championship champion.
He would endure another near-miss for a breakthrough victory last year after losing in the playoff to Zimbabwe’s Scott Vincent at the Gateway to The Mizuno Open.
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Coming off a career-best 19th placing in last season’s JGTO Money Rankings where he also impressed with a solo fourth at the BMW Japan Golf Tour Championship Mori Building Cup, Quayle will not be short of confidence as he aims to go one better and claim a win he’s been long for.
Quayle, who finished tied-26th at the season-opening Token Homemate Cup, knows exactly what he’s capable of achieving at the Nagoya Golf Club this week if he puts together four good rounds.
Last year, he opened with a sizzling 61 to seize the first-round lead but eventually settled for tied-39th on the final day.
“I’ve many good memories of playing on this golf course and I cannot wait for another chance to make my breakthrough here in Japan. Hopefully, this will be my week,” said the Australian.
Contested from the first JGTO season in 1973, The Crown boasts a long list of illustrious winners, including Seve Ballesteros, Davis Love, Darren Clarke, and Justin Rose.
Quayle will be aiming to follow the footsteps of other countrymen in capturing the tournament, including Peter Thomson, David Graham, Graham Marsh, Peter Senior, Roger Mackay and Brendan Jones, who’s also competing this week.
The other international challengers in the 105-man field this week are Juvic Pagunsan and Justin De Los Santos of the Philippines, American Todd Baek and Han Lee, and South Africa’s Jbe Kruger.
As for the local field, the two winners of the season thus far – Shugo Imahira (Token Homemate Cup) and Taiga Semikawa (Kansai Open) – are also in the field.
But the attention will surely be on the 42-year-old Hiroshi Iwata, who returned to form last week with a creditable tied-fourth finish at the DP World Tour-jointly sanctioned ISPS HANDA Championship.
Iwata will be the man to beat given his splendid record in the past two editions.
He was the winner in 2021 and came in outright third last year.
Yuki Inamori will launch an ambitious title defence bid as he seeks to become the only third player in history to win the tournament back-to-back.
JGTO legends Isao Aoki and Masashi Ozaki are the only two to have accomplished the rare feat.
