Top 5 Asian Players: Number 2 Shigeki Maruyama
When we talk about the top 5 players of Asia, the mention of Shigeki Maruyama cannot be far behind. The “Smiling Assassin”, nicknamed for his ever-present serene and endearing smile on the course, is number two on our charts. Not only does Shigeki appear
in the top Asian players list but has also made an appearance in the top 20 players on the official golf rankings.
The Japanese star player hit his first even-par at the age of 11. His career began with the Japan Golf Tour, and he became the leading player on the tour almost immediately. Though he turned professional in 1992, he really came into the public eye when
he unexpectedly won all five Presidents Cup titles in 1998. However, it was his brilliant finishes in two World Golf Championship events of 1999 that earned him a spot on the PGA Tour for the 2000 season.
2000 was an extremely good year for Shigeki. He topped $ 1 million in ONE Tour season becoming the first Japanese player to do so. His best play came with a T2; four strokes behind Phil Mickelson, against Tiger Woods at Buick International
became his best play for the year. Perhaps the best news of the year came with him qualifying for the US Open by shooting a first round 58, a record for any competitive event. An interesting piece of trivia here would be that his father in honour of this victory
renamed the golf course he owned “58 Golf Course”. Shigeki Maruyama also earned a spot on the International Presidents Cup team later the same year.
By the end of his first two years as a member, he not only captured his first victory on the Greater Milwaukee Open but also made it into the top 40 on the Tour money list. The victory against Charles Howell III, achieved through a birdie-4 on the first
playoff, earned him the title of being the first Japanese to have won on a Tour event on US Mainland.
The Nihon University graduate is the first Asian to have multiple titles on the PGA tour.
Injuries never came in the way of the hard core golfer and despite a nagging neck injury he still managed on finish 37th, for a third time in four years, on the money list in 2003. He went on to record a hole-in-one for the third consecutive season
when he aced the eighth hole and won the Chrysler Classic of Greensboro. With this third consecutive win he joined the ranks of the only other four players in the world to have done so; Tiger Woods, Justin Leonard, Jim Fyunk and Retief Goosen.
With a whopping $810,000 pay check, he closed the year by becoming the first player in the history of the tour to cross the $1 million mark in the first four seasons. Indeed Shigeki Maruyama is a player of many first in golfing history.
His career-best finish in a major came in 2004 when he won the US Open with a T4. Shigeki is a player who has constantly been competing against himself rather than his opponents on the course; a fact that is proven by his career-high 30 starts with four
top-10’s and a third place finish in the BC Open.
Ever since he was granted membership in the PGA, the golfer has mainly played in America. However, at the end of 2008 he decided to head back home because of his failure to maintain full playing rights on the Tour.
It comes as a surprise to many that the larger than life player’s, who is so good at golf, favourite sport is actually Basketball and his favourite player is Michael Jordan.
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