Katayama wins Japan Open as Parry falters
BY Bruce Young | Japan Tour | 2005 Japan Open | Wrap | 16 Oct 2005
Shingo Katayama today added to his already impressive Japan Golf Tour victory total by winning the Japan Golf Open at the Hirono Golf Club in Hyogo Prefecture near Osaka.
Surprisingly it was Katayama’s first win of the season but such has been his consistency in 2005 that it was his 11th top ten in seventeen starts and he has swept past the incumbent number one on the Japan Tour money list, Keiichiro Fukabori.
It was the 32-year-old’s seventeenth win since joining the JGT in 1997 and since his first victory in 1998.
Katayama played at both the Masters and the USPGA this season finishing 33rd and 23rd respectively and has often played well away from Japan. He finished a handy fourth to David Toms at the 2001 USPGA but it is in Japan where he has reached almost superstar status. He has led the money list on two occasions and not finished outside the top four in each year since 2000.
Today Katayama started four shots behind another of the Japan Tour’s best players in recent years, Toshi Izawa and sole second round leader, Ricky Kawagishi, but by putting together an almost faultless final round on a tough and typically demanding Japan Open layout, Katayama swept past Kawagishi, Australian Craig Parry and a struggling Izawa to win by two.
Parry, who had won this title in 1997 and had been 6th and 7th in his only other appearances in the event, looked as if he might have been in line for his second Japan Open title before bogeys at the last two holes cost him dearly. He eventually shared second with Kawagishi, while Takuya Tanguchi, Keiichiro Fukabori and Izawa shared fourth. It was a welcome for turnaround for Parry however after a run of ordinary tournaments over the last few months.
Steve Conran, who was very much in the thick of things through the opening two rounds faded over the weekend to finish 11th, a position he shared with 19-year-old Sydney amateur Won Joon Lee. It was brilliant performance from the Australian whiz kid who won the individual title at the recent Four Nations Championship in Japan.
Paul Sheehan and David Smail both let good starts go to waste with disappointing weekends when they finished in a share of 16th as did Chris Campbell who struggled into 50th place.
The Japan Golf Tour now heads to Chiba prefecture near Narita for the Bridgestone Open.
