Baddeley returns to scene of professional debut
BY Bruce Young | Japan Tour | 2002 Mitsui Sumitomo Visa Taiheiyo Masters | Preview | 12 Nov 2002
Two years ago, at this very tournament, Aaron Baddeley commenced his professional career when he secured an invitation to play here. In that event he finished a reasonable thirty first, especially given that he only just made the cut and suffered from a quadruple bogey in round three.
In the period since there has been some success (2000 Australian Open and 2001 Greg Norman) but plenty of frustration as he has focused all of his attention on securing a card for the USPGA Tour. Now that he has achieved his goal in that respect, he returns to this event with the comfort of a 2003 USPGA Tour card via the Buy.Com Tour and a game with which he has growing confidence. This week may well offer an interesting yardstick to the progress he has made and where he is at with his game right now.
The event brings together the leading golfers on the Japan Tour including the money leader this season, Toru Taniguchi, who has won four times this year and second placed Nobuhito Sato, a three time winner.
Australasians Brendan Jones, the recent winner of the lucrative Philip Morris event and currently seventh on the money list, Scott Laycock the winner of the Bridgestone event and David Smail, the Japan Open champion, will all line up along with Anthony Gilligan, Steve Conran and Richard Backwell.
The representation of Australasians near the top of the Japan Tour money list has not been this strong since the days of Graham Marsh, the late Roger MacKay and Brian Jones in the late 1980’s. Interestingly both Marsh and Mackay were previous winners here. Brendon Jones 7th, Laycock 8th and Smail 12th represents a fine effort by them.
Several well credentialed sponsors invites get starts here also. Not sure at this stage who the final make up will be but Lee Westwood won the event on three consecutive occasions in 1996,97 and 98, Greg Norman won in 1993 and Jose Maria Olazabal won in 1989 and 1990.
The Taiheyo Course is at the base of Mt Fuji and this majestic snow capped mountain provides a stunning backdrop for the activity of the week. The greens at Taiheyo have always been amongst the best offered on the Japan Tour. It was at this course last year that Ernie Els and Retief Goosen won the World Cup for South Africa.
The event is followed next week by the Dunlop Phoenix which brings Tiger Woods to Japan.
