Taiheyo Masters a cakewalk for Murota

BY Bruce Young | Japan Tour | 2003 Mitsui Sumitomo Visa Taiheiyo Masters | Wrap | 17 Nov 2003

Kiyoshi Murota won his first event in 2003 and his sixth overall when he blitzed a high quality field to win the Mitsui Sumitomo Visa Taiheyo Masters by six shots from Korean, Jong-Duck Kim, Hiroyuti Fujita and 2003 British Open champion Ben Curtis.

Murota has been around for a while on the Japan Tour and had been a very good golfer back in the early 90’s although after early success he had failed to win for several seasons until 2001. This would be his sixth win on the Japan Tour but the ease of his win had not exactly been telegraphed in recent weeks. His last six events have yielded two missed cuts, a withdrawal and a best of 26th so the manner of his victory here came as somewhat of a surprise.

The event is staged at the Taiheyo Golf Club in Gotemba on the lower slopes of Mt Fuji and annually attracts one of the better fields on the Japan Golf Tour with several international invites including Australian Robert Allenby.

Murota’s brilliant third round 62 created a six shot margin heading into round four and from that point on it was pretty much a case of catch me if you can. Two early birdies in round four closed a door that might have looked ajar and although he stumbled his way to the finish line with a last nine of 39, all his work had already been done.

Brendan Jones was the best of the Australians in 16th place, Steve Conran was 24th, Craig Parry 33rd, and Robert Allenby 36th. Allenby now heads to South Africa for the Presidents Cup.

Todd Hamilton still leads the Japan Tour money list with three events to go including this week’s lucrative Dunlop Phoenix in Miyazaki. Hamilton has 115 million yen ($A1,470,000) to his name. Toshi Izawa is second with 113 million. Brendan Jones is the leading Australian in 7th place with 62 million yen or $A800,000.