Soushi Tajima wins his first event at Hisamitsu-KBC Augusta

BY Bruce Young | Japan Tour | 2003 Hisamitsu-KBC Augusta | Wrap | 31 Aug 2003

In his previous two starts on the Japan Golf Tour this season, Soushi Tajima had given signs that his maiden win was imminent. He had been fourth at both the Aiful Cup and the Sun Chlorella events in late July and early August and when you consider that he had been only 92nd on the money list in 2002 and 147th in 2001, then those recent results suggested something even more significant was about to happen. It did just that today when he won the Hisamitsu-KBC Augusta event in Fukuoka on the southern island of Kyushu.

Tajima has played the Japan Tour for just three years but until the last few weeks there had been little to get excited about in terms of his performances. This win changes all that and he has jumped to 8th on the 2003 money list as a result of his hot run in recent starts.

He started the last round with a narrow one shot lead and was caught early in the round by Fijian Dinesh Chand, but took the lead again through the turn and was never headed from that point. He won in the end by four from Chand and Hisayuki Sasaki.

Paul Sheehan was the only Australasian to make the cut finishing 17th following his last round 71 and moves to 32nd on the money list with 16 million yen or $A200,000.