In order to be the best, you’ve got to learn from the best.

High-flying second-year professional Yuto Katsuragawa is unfazed by the fierce competition from foreign competitors who have

been making inroads into JGTO in recent years.

The abbreviated 2020-2021 season itself saw nearly a third of the 30-tournament schedule featured non-Japanese winners.

Notable foreign champions included American Chan Kim, Korean Seonghyeon Kim and South African Shaun Norris who were

crowned winner of the Golf Nippon Series JT Cup, Japan PGA Championship and Japan Open Golf Championship respectively.

However, Katsuragawa is not daunted by these stats at all. It motivates him even more to step up his game.

“Golf is a global sport, it isn’t played only in Japan, right?” replied Katsuragawa when asked on the importance of having foreign

competitors’ presence on JGTO.

“Hence, we need to compete with players from all over the world. Of course, at the same time I will also try to learn as much as I can from the foreign players by observing their performance.

“I would love to communicate with them more and make more friends on the Tour along the way.

“It’s would also be ideal to expand our horizon by competing overseas, where you get to challenge yourself with courses with

different type of greens and grass. But it’s quite costly to do so.”

Having previously attended high school in the Philippines, Katsuragawa revealed that he has forged a close friendship with Angelo

Que and Juvic Pagunsan, the country’s two biggest names, and how he got inspired by them.

Both Que and Pagunsan had secured their JGTO breakthroughs after winning 2018 Top Cup Tokai Classic and 2021 Gateway to The Open Mizuno Open respectively.

“I spent about three years in the Philippines and I got to interact with many foreign players during my time there,” recounted

Katsuragawa.

“That was when I got to know Angelo Que and Juvic Pagunsan. I competed with them a lot and eventually became close to them.

I also received plenty of guidance from these two great golfers, they are my source of motivation.

“Surprisingly, I wasn’t close to any Filipino golfer of my generation.”

Katsuragawa is currently gearing up for the Token Homemate Cup from March 31-April 3 as he seeks to pick up where he left off at

the SMBC Singapore Open last month.

Then, he came in joint runner-up to mark his career-best result having previously finished tied 17^th at the Casio World Open last

November.

With the tournament also doubled up as The Open Qualifying Series, Katsuragawa’s brilliant effort punched him a maiden Major

ticket to the 150^th Open Championship at St. Andrews in July.