Nakajima, Nagano and Asaji trail by two

Nakajima, Nagano and Asaji trail by two

The Japanese trio of Keita Nakajima, Ryutaro Nagano and Yosuke Asaji fired matching five-under-par 65s to lead the local charge after the opening round of the inaugural ISPS HANDA Championship in Ibaraki Prefecture on Thursday. They ended the day tied for sixth, just two shots adrift of the early pace set by England's Andy Sullivan and Kim Yeong-su of South Korea at the PGM Ishioka Golf Club in Omitama.

Evergreen Australian Brad Kennedy also made his presence felt with an opening 65, joining the Japanese trio to keep the JGTO flag flying high against their rivals from the DP World Tour in the ground-breaking tournament jointly sanctioned by the JGTO and DP World Tour for the first time in Japan.

Starting the day from the 10th tee, Nakajima was even-par through eight holes before coming alive with five birdies, including three over the last four holes.

"It was a great start. However, I did miss some uphill putts and I need to do better on that, not just for this week but for my career as a whole," said Nakajima, who's the former world No. 1 amateur.

"I didn't hit my second shot close enough and had some distance to catch up. But I'm still happy with the fact that I played aggressively yet with the confidence to aim for the pins even though they are located in difficult positions. It worked well for me today.

Nakajima will be pumped up to keep the solid run going in the early season after starting strongly with a tied-eighth at the Token Homemate Cup and finishing solo ninth at the Kansai Open last week.

With a two-year exemption on the DP World Tour up for grabs this week, Nakajima knows exactly what's at stake. "I'm definitely aiming for a win. (The DP World Tour opportunity) It's very appealing to me," added the 2021 Panasonic Open champion. Nagano, a five-time JGTO runner-up, carried the fine form from last week's Kansai Open, where he came in fifth, to put himself in early contention.

The 34-year-old marked his scorecard with an eagle and five birdies to offset a pair of bogeys on the 11th and 12th. "Even though I started with a birdie on the 10th hole, I made two straight bogeys on the 11th and the 12th, it was frustrating," said Nagano.

"But the feeling of my swing has been gradually getting better since this morning. I played well in the last two weeks, so I came into this week in good shape, but I wasn't this morning.

"I wasn't sure why, maybe it was due to the early tee times or maybe because I felt overwhelmed because it was a DP World Tour event. "Fortunately, I managed to stay calm, and it helped me to improve my scoring later on.

"The birdie on the 18th made my score even par so I could relax a bit heading into the last nine holes."
Four-time DP World Tour winner Sullivan sparkled brightly as he traded eight birdies against a lone bogey to give himself a possible shot at ending a three-year title drought.

"Really pleased, just got off to a good start. A lot of right flags out there for me to find - as my playing partner Romain Langasque told me 'every flag out there is a right flag, and you fade the ball so it’s perfect for you today'," said Sullivan, who last triumphed at the English Championship in 2020.

"It was good fun playing with Brendan (Lawlor) and Romain, very relaxed vibe. It was good (holiday in Thailand before this event), we actually got a couple of practice rounds in before going.

"Went away, tried to get on the time zone, it was a nice relaxing time. Might need to do it more often if I’m playing like this."

"Me and my coach have been working on going back to when I was playing my best, around 2015, 16, so we’ve looked at swings from there and almost tried to mimic that.

"It’s getting close, feel confident with the irons. Driver is still taking a bit of work. On the whole the game is feeling good. It feels a lot more under control again, less of the erratic shots."

Leading first round scores:
63: Andry Sullivan (Eng), Kim Su-yeong (Kor);
64: Alexander Bjork (Swe), Aaron Cockerill (Can), Deon Germishuys (Rsa);
65: Ryutaro Nagano (Jpn), Jacques Kruyswijk (Rsa), Sebastian Soderberg (Swe), Keita Nakajima (Jpn), Brad Kennedy (Aus), Daniel Hillier (Nzl), Yosuke Asaji (Jpn), Marcel Schneider (Ger).
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