Asia-Pacific Panasonic Open: Hiroyuki Fujita continues his great form on the Japan Golf Tour
Hiroyuki Fujita fired a seven-under par 65, in the opening round of the Asia-Pacific Panasonic Open, to share the second spot on the leaderboard, on Thursday, September 20, 2012.
The Japanese star got off to a slow start, as he parred each of the first five holes on the front nine of the Higashi Hirono Golf Club in Hyogo.
A birdie on the sixth hole proved to be a turning point of his opening-round campaign, as he added another two on the eighth and ninth hole for a three-under par score.
He then kept the momentum going into the back nine of the course and recorded four birdies, without conceding a single bogey.
At the end of the day, he was just two strokes behind the leader Yuta Ikeda, who posted an impressive nine-under par 62.
According to Fujita, he could have posted a better score. However, his start was not good enough, as he missed a couple of easy birdie putts.
In the meantime, he was happy with his overall performance, as the venue course is regarded as one of the toughest courses in Japan.
He stated that despite missing some birdie chances, his putting was at its best. According to him, he was not expecting such a low score.
“This is the best I putted all season. This is a difficult golf course and I wasn’t expecting to shoot what I did,” he explained. “I won last week so I’m carrying a bit of momentum but this is only the first day and I can’t say that I will make two victories
in a row. If this was the third day then maybe I’ll be happy”.
He now plans to maintain his consistency in the remaining three rounds and remain in contention for the top spot, till the end of the tournament.
According to the golf commentators, Fujita displayed a stunning performance and has the potential to challenge the leader, entering the weekend.
Last week, he outshined his opponents at the ANA Open and recorded the 14th Japan Golf Tour victory of his career.
Therefore, he only needs to keep focusing on his natural putting, rather than putting extra pressure on himself.
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