Rookie Onishi upstages the establishment at Asia-Pacific Open

New kid on the block Kaito Onishi from Japan added a three-under-par 67 to his opening day 65 to take the lead in the Asia Pacific Open Golf Championship Diamond Cup today.

Onishi, joint overnight leader with countryman Hiroshi Iwata, began on hole 10 and impressively toured the back nine in four under with birdies on 10, 11, 15 and 18, and then reached 10 under for the tournament with a birdie on the third, before dropping shots on five and nine.

He has a two-shot lead, on eight under, over compatriots Yuki Inamori (64) and Rikuya Hoshino (67), and Australian Todd Sinnott (68) – on a rainy and windy day at Oarai Golf Club, near Tokyo.

Japan’s Shugo Imahira, the Japan Golf Tour Organisation (JGTO) Money List winner in 2018 and 2019, is a stroke further behind following a 69.  He’s a shot ahead of Japan’s Yuta Katsuragawa, the current leader of the JGTO money list, who also came in with a 69.

Iwata slipped back with a 74 and is one under for the tournament, which is jointly sanctioned by the Asian Tour and JGTO. It’s the first time the Asian Tour has visited Japan since 2019 because of the pandemic.

Onishi only turned professional last year after graduating from the University of Southern California, but he has been quick to adjust to life in the play for pay game. Most noticeably he was fourth in the ISPS HANDA Championship last month before impressing this week.

“I’m happy to be in the lead and I hope I have the momentum over the next two days,” said 23-year-old Onishi, who is from Nagoya.

“I need to focus on each shot and not think about my position. The goal is to win, and I am confident I can do that.”

Sinnott has been playing in Japan since winning the 2017 Leopalace21 Myanmar Open, an Asian Tour JGTO co-sanctioned event, and is putting together one of his finest performances in Japan.

The Australian claimed the TPS Victoria in February for his first success on the PGA Tour of Australasia and his fine form has clearly remained.

“Today’s a tough day obviously with the rain and wind,” said Sinnott.

“Honestly, I was just trying to stay really patient and just hang tough out there. I can’t even remember the round, very tired. I hit it solid in patches, but I think it’s my short game that stood out. I was able to get up and down whenever I miss the green. By doing that, I was able to keep the round going and keep the momentum going. Thankfully, I was able to play in Japan last year and this year, managed to travel to a couple more events this year. Life’s getting back to normal so it’s nice.”

Thailand’s Sadom Kaewkanjana (68) and Prom Meesawat (69) are in tie for seventh on three under along with Japan’s Ryo Ishikawa (67), Australia’s Ben Campbell (70) and American Berry Henson (71).

Said Sadom: “Tough conditions today but I was able to give myself a lot of birdie opportunities. Everything was good for me. Conditions were really different compared to yesterday. I tell myself to forget every shot that I hit, just focus on the next one out there. I did that better today, compared to yesterday. Happy to be in a good position right now. I need to play my best tomorrow and enjoy the game.”

Scores after round 2 of the Asia-Pacific Open Golf Championship Diamond Cup being played at the par 70, 7163 Yards Oarai GC course (am – denotes amateur):
132 – Kaito Onishi (JPN) 65-67.
134 – Yuki Inamori (JPN) 70-64, Rikuya Hoshino (JPN) 67-67, Todd Sinnott (AUS) 66-68.
135 – Shugo Imahira (JPN) 66-69.
136 – Yuto Katsuragawa (JPN) 67-69.
137 – Prom Meesawat (THA) 68-69, Kazuma Kobori (am, NZL) 67-70, Ryuko Tokimatsu (JPN) 71-66, Ryo Ishikawa (JPN) 70-67, Sadom Kaewkanjana (THA) 69-68, Ben Campbell (NZL) 67-70, Berry Henson (USA) 66-71, Kosuke Hamamoto (THA) 69-68.
138 – Hiroyuki Fujita (JPN) 69-69, Jinichiro Kozuma (JPN) 71-67, Keita Nakajima (am, JPN) 67-71, Ryo Noro (JPN) 71-67, Gunn Charoenkul (THA) 72-66.
139 – Taihei Sato (JPN) 71-68, Michio Matsumura (JPN) 67-72, Hiroshi Iwata (JPN) 65-74, Ajeetesh Sandhu (IND) 70-69, Steve Lewton (ENG) 70-69, Yosuke Tsukada (JPN) 70-69, Ryo Hisatsune (JPN) 69-70, Yuta Ikeda (JPN) 67-72, Shunsuke Sonoda (JPN) 68-71.
140 – Yoshitaka Takeya (JPN) 69-71, Kodai Ichihara (JPN) 67-73, Taiga Semikawa (am, JPN) 71-69, Kosuke Suzuki (am, JPN) 70-70, Hiroki Abe (JPN) 68-72, Jimmy Hydes (am, NZL) 67-73.
141 – Itthipat Buranatanyarat (THA) 71-70, Ryuichi Oiwa (JPN) 72-69, Tomohiro Ishizaka (JPN) 67-74, Aguri Iwasaki (JPN) 72-69, Yosuke Asaji (JPN) 69-72, Kazuki Higa (JPN) 71-70, Ben Leong (MAS) 72-69, Daijiro Izumida (JPN) 70-71, Toru Taniguchi (JPN) 67-74, Shota Ueki (JPN) 69-72.
142 – Hideto Kobukuro (JPN) 68-74, Tomoharu Otsuki (JPN) 72-70, Shingo Katayama (JPN) 70-72, Naoyuki Kataoka (JPN) 69-73, Katsumasa Miyamoto (JPN) 71-71, Miguel Carballo (ARG) 69-73, Mikumu Horikawa (JPN) 71-71, Azuma Yano (JPN) 71-71, Yusuke Sakamoto (JPN) 71-71, Yusaku Hosono (JPN) 73-69.
143 – Masato Sumiuchi (am, JPN) 76-67, Ren Yonezawa (JPN) 72-71, Tomoyo Ikemura (JPN) 71-72, Eric Sugimoto (JPN) 72-71, Jbe Kruger (RSA) 73-70, Daisuke Kataoka (JPN) 71-72, Yuwa Kosaihira (JPN) 71-72, Brad Kennedy (AUS) 69-74, Taichiro Ideriha (am, JPN) 70-73.
144 – Yuki Furukawa (JPN) 73-71, Shun Niimura (am, JPN) 71-73, Prayad Marksaeng (THA) 73-71, Masanori Kobayashi (JPN) 73-71, Naoto Takayanagi (JPN) 73-71, Ashita Piamkulvanich (am, THA) 72-72, Aoki Takano (JPN) 68-76, Angelo Que (PHI) 74-70, Rahil Gangjee (IND) 75-69, Younghan Song (KOR) 71-73, Toshinori Muto (JPN) 73-71, Jay Choi (USA) 72-72.
145 – Scott Vincent (ZIM) 73-72, Tomoyasu Sugiyama (JPN) 70-75, Naoto Nakanishi (JPN) 73-72, Koshiro Maeda (am, JPN) 74-71, Paul Peterson (USA) 70-75, Taiga Kobayashi (am, JPN) 67-78, Riura Matsui (am, JPN) 75-70.
146 – Suradit Yongcharoenchai (THA) 70-76, Yuta Uetake (JPN) 75-71, Ryonosuke Furukawa (am, JPN) 72-74, Taichi Teshima (JPN) 71-75, Tirawat Kaewsiribandit (THA) 76-70, Keiichiro Fukabori (JPN) 70-76, Hirotaro Naito (JPN) 77-69.
147 – Yusaku Miyazato (JPN) 71-76, Poom Saksansin (THA) 75-72, Kunihiro Kamii (JPN) 73-74, Tatsunori Shogenji (JPN) 70-77, Kensei Hirata (JPN) 73-74, Kazuki Ishiwata (JPN) 73-74, Shintaro Kobayashi (JPN) 70-77, Yuki Sato (JPN) 75-72.
148 – Tetsuji Hiratsuka (JPN) 76-72, Koumei Oda (JPN) 71-77, Shota Akiyoshi (JPN) 73-75, Shinji Tomimura (JPN) 75-73, Yuta Sugiura (am, JPN) 72-76, Su Ching-hung (am, TPE) 75-73, Hideto Tanihara (JPN) 77-71, Shinichi Yokota (JPN) 75-73, Haruto Toge (am, JPN) 73-75.
149 – Konosuke Nakazato (JPN) 74-75, Kenshiro IKEGAMI (JPN) 78-71, Kyungtae Kim (KOR) 72-77, Grant Godfrey (USA) 74-75, Mitsuhiko Hashizume (JPN) 74-75, Suzuchiyo Ishida (JPN) 75-74, Thanyakon Khrongpha (THA) 75-74, Hiroki Mori (JPN) 76-73, Koichi Kitamura (JPN) 74-75.
150 – Jack Harrison (ENG) 74-76, Ryutaro Nagano (JPN) 73-77, Shotaro Wada (JPN) 74-76.
151 – Ryuta Suzuki (am, JPN) 76-75, Mikiya Akutsu (JPN) 76-75, Makoto Iwasaki (JPN) 76-75.
152 – Minato Oshima (am, JPN) 74-78, Takahiro Hataji (JPN) 76-76, Kenta Endo (JPN) 76-76, Mardan Mamat (SIN) 73-79, Liang Wenchong (CHN) 74-78, Shoji Kawai (JPN) 76-76, Lu Wei-chih (TPE) 77-75.
153 – Pavit Tangkamolprasert (THA) 76-77, Janne Kaske (FIN) 77-76, Jigen Serizawa (JPN) 75-78.
154 – Jake Higginbottom (AUS) 83-71, Naoki Sekito (JPN) 78-76, Taisei Shimizu (JPN) 76-78.
155 – Panuphol Pittayarat (THA) 81-74, Haruo Fujishima (JPN) 80-75.
156 – Yoshinari Takano (JPN) 74-82.
157 – Yoshiharu Tomotsugu (JPN) 76-81.
159 – Yoshinari Ishizuka (am, JPN) 80-79, Zhou Tianwei (CHN) 81-78.
160 – Hiromi Kinoshita (JPN) 83-77.

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