Yuwa Kosaihira made a blistering start to his title bid at this week’s ISPS HANDA Explosion in the summer event with a blemish-free 10-under-par-62 to seize the early lead at the Gozensui Golf Club on Thursday.
Related: Tomoyo Ikemura fights back to win
The 27-year-old leads by one shot over a trio of players that includes New Zealand’s Denzel Ieremia and Japan’s Shugo Imahira and Tomoyo Ikemura, who returned with matching 63s.
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Starting on the back nine, Kosaihira wasted no time in setting the pace with back-to-back birdies on holes 10 and 11. He added three more on 15, 16 and 18 to make the turn at five-under, then picked up further shots on holes one, two, four, five and seven.
“I got off to a good start with back-to-back birdies, and it was nice to keep that flow going until the end. Overall, my shots were solid — most approaches finished about a pin away, and the putts were dropping, so it turned into a good score,” said Kosaihira, who is chasing his maiden JGTO title.
When asked if he was aware of his score during the round, he replied: “I didn’t really think about it. I feel like if I get too conscious of the number, it gets harder to keep going, so I just stayed in my rhythm.”
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Despite trailing Kosaihira by just one shot, Ieremia remains upbeat about his challenge in Japan this week.
“This is my third JGTO event I’ve played in. I’ve played in the Diamond Cup and Japan Open in 2019. I’m happy to be here. And this is my first time in Hokkaido. I’m not sure if I can get a nine-under-par score tomorrow as it might get windy, but I’ll just try to play good golf again again,” said the New Zealander.
