Japan’s Taiga Semikawa further underlined his status as the next big thing in Japanese golf after he fired a final round four-under-par 67 to win by four shots from compatriot at the Kansai Open Golf Championship on Sunday.
It was Semikawa’s third title on JGTO but his first as a professional.
Before joining the play-for-pay ranks in November last year, the 22-year-old had won the Panasonic Open and Japan Open.
Semikawa was pleased to have made amends after last year’s final round meltdown saw him settle for tied-17th after having entered the final day in solo third.
“I really wanted to make up for last year’s disappointment, and I think I’ve become more mature since last year,” said an emotional Semikawa.
Buoyed by his latest victory, Semikawa has swiftly set his sights on becoming the prize money king on JGTO.
“Higa won this tournament and went on to top the prize money rankings, it’s my hope that I can do the same too!” he said.
American Todd Baek was, meanwhile, unable to win his first JGTO title after ending his week in a tie for 10th place.
American Todd Baek. Photo credit:J GTOimages
Baek went into the final round in joint third and four shots off the pace. But he could only close with a 72 to finish the week on eight-under-par 276 total – nine shots behind Semikawa.
Despite the disappointment, Baek believes securing a top-10 result early in the season was still nevertheless encouraging, and he’s keen to build on it.
“Absolutely bad,” Baek lamented after managing only a solitary birdie on the 13th hole to offset the two bogeys conceded on holes five and 14.
“Hit it terrible, putted terrible…nothing went right for me. It just wasn’t my day, but it’s over now and let’s move on.
“It’s just the beginning of the year, I’m still looking to having a good year.
“We have a big one coming up next week, the IPSA HANDA Championship, a European Tour (jointly sanctioned) event, very looking forward to it!
“I’ll work on my game and try to get another good finish there.”
Baek was also in full praise of the tournament organisers for doing a great job with the course preparations at the Izumigaoka Country Club.
“It was a great week, lots of galleries and we have had interesting weather too…sunny, windy, rain and I must say they did well in preparing the course even with lots of rain.”
There was also no final round flourish from Australia’s Dylan Perry as he fell from joint third spot to tied 15th.
Perry bogeyed four times before holing a sole consolation birdie at the last for a poor 74 and finished on six-under-par 278.
Compatriot Brad Kennedy, the winner in 2013, closed with a 70 for seven-under overall to mark his first appearance of the season with a tied-12th finish.
Leading final round scores:
267: Taiga Semikawa 69-67-64-67;
271: Takahiro Hataji 67-71-67-66;
272: Kosuke Suzuki 68-67-70-67, Tsubasa Ukita 64-69-71-68;
273: Ryutaro Nagano 64-68-71-70;
274: Yujiro Ohori 70-69-68-67, Kensei Hirata 73-68-63-70, Riki Kawamoto 69-67-68-70;
275: Keita Nakajima 69-69-69-68;
276: Taihei Sato 71-67-67-71, Todd Baek (US) 67-68-69-72;
277: Yusuke Sakamoto 72-69-68-68, Brad Kennedy (Aus) 69-67-71-70, Sejung Hiramoto 68-65-74-70;
278: Taiga Nagano 72-68-68-70, Dylan Perry (Aus) 65-69-70-74.
