Nakajima wins with strong finish
BY Bruce Young | Japan Tour | 2002 Diamond Cup Tournament | Wrap | 03 Jun 2002
Despite a football match between England and Sweden just down the road, the Japan Tour continued here in Saitama this week, and it was the veteran Tommy Nakajima who prevailed. Nakajima was one of the dominant players in Japanese golf during the eighties and early nineties but has battled over the last few years; in fact this was his first win since 1995.
Nakajima flew the flag for Japanese golf internationally for many years and, very successfully. He did not win outside of Japan but he had top tens in each of the major championships including twice at the Masters, twice at the PGA and once in both the British and US Opens. He was third behind Jeff Sluman in the 1987 USPGA and, as a consequence of these performances, has been quite legendary in Japanese golf.
The endearing image I have of Nakajima was in the British Open at St Andrews, where he took forever to get out of the greenside bunker on the road hole, when he was either in or near the lead. At 47 he has, over the past eighteen months, returned to the form that had him such a prolific winner of events on the tour earlier in his career and, given his propensity for travel, perhaps a Seniors career is beckoning.
Nakajima started the last round tied in the lead with S.K. Ho and Christain Pena and was still tied with Pena through nine holes. Four birdies in five holes to start the back nine sealed the deal however, and he cruised to a comfortable two shot win over Tomohiro Kondou, Hirofume Miyase and Pena.
New Zealander David Smail, a little better after three or four ordinary finishes recently, was thirteenth and a cheque for $A28,000 with Brendan Jones 43rd.
