Tournament article

Mynavi ABC Championship Golf Tournament 2019

Shugo is back on top at the Money Rankings but had to settle for runner-up finish at MyNavi

Shugo Imahira chose to stay in Japan Tour this week in spite of the fact he was able to be in the field of WGC HSBC Champions. He chose to play at MyNavi ABC Championship to fulfil his goal, win this week and regain his top position on the Money Rankings. He was the leader with 1 shot at the start of Final Round, but at the end he had to settle for runner-up position again and gave away the victory to Jung-Gon Hwang.

The top positions of the leader board were mostly occupied by the 3 players in the final group. Especially the battle between Shugo and Jung-Gon was a seesaw game. Their positons on the leader board went back and forth among the two.

Shugo darted his tee shot on Par 3 12 and scooped away a birdie to make his lead in to 2 shots. But on the 15th, Shugo gets himself into trouble with a bad decision.
"I made a terrible decision to lay up on that Par 5 hole", recalled Shugo. On his 2nd shot from the left side roughs, he was wandering between the club choices.

"I'd figured that wood might get tangled by the sticky roughs, so I chose to use 8 Iron."
But this shot lead to tragedy. His shot went way left and hit the trees. He took the full 3 minutes to search for his ball, but it was gone. After taking the penalty, Shugo managed to make the 5-meter bogey putt, but now he was tie with Jung-Gon Hwang.

His tragedy continues onto Par 3 16th, as he missed the tee shot slightly to the right of the green.
"I wanted to hit with my putter, but I had to go over the 3-4 meters of green edge fringes."

He tried going for it with his wedge shot, but it still left him 2-meter par putt to play, which he couldn't save.

Shugo fought strong until the very last hole as he made him a chance for eagle on 18th from 205 yards out with a 5I to 4-meters. Shugo showed his fight as he holed this eagle putt, but it wasn't enough to stop Jung-Gon. Jung-Gon also made the 2-meter eagle putt and the dramatic Sunday was all over.
"Jung-Gon had a downhill uneasy putt. I thought there could be a chance for the playoff, but he holed it from the center."

Shugo gained his 4th runner-up finish this season and with the prize money of 15 million yen, now his is back on the top of the Money Rankings. Also his total prize money for this season is over 100 million yen mark, which is 3 years in a row.
"I am really regretful that I couldn't win this week even I am back on top."