De Los Santos braves rain to start challenge with opening 66

Philippines' Justin De Los Santos braved the elements to open his campaign at the JAPAN PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP by Satosyokuhin 2023 with a six-under-par 66 to trail first round leaders Naoyuki Kataoka, also the inaugural winner, Riki Kawamoto and Eric Sugimoto by two shots on Thursday.

On a day when the Nishi Nasuno Country Club was pelted with heavy rain and temperatures dipped to a low of 16 Degrees Celsius, De Los Santos could even have snatched a share of the opening round lead if not for a wayward approach shot which resulted in a closing bogey.

Rain brought the play to a halt for 29 minutes before it resumed at 3.23 pm, affecting those who teed off in the afternoon flights.

But it hardly dampened the De Los Santos’ spirit, as he brilliantly snared seven birdies to share the sixth spot with eight-time JGTO winner Koumei Oda to mark his best start of the season.

"That was a little tough. It's (the rain) starting to affect the course a little bit, but, yeah, it made the course softer, so that sort of made landing things to the greens a little bit easier," he said.

"I hit a couple of wayward tee shots, but, I recovered from a few of them quite well. That last one, I didn't hit a great second shot and it wasn't in a great spot.

"It's still a good round and I'll definitely take that. Hopefully, I can keep going."

More remarkably, the 25-year-old also had to push the trolley on his own throughout the day as he is playing without a caddie this week.

"I bought this trolley in 2021, during the whole COVID time, and honestly, I've just sort of stuck with it," he said.

"I haven't really found a caddie that I necessarily click with. That's sort of what I've been doing, just being on my own, using house caddies. Would have been nice to have a caddy today.

"It definitely makes things a little bit more difficult, but I kind of like just being responsible for my own game and that's sort of why that's sort of the reason why I haven't really added someone."

Kataoka wielded a hot putter to set the early pace along with back-in-form Kawamoto and Sugimoto.

Kataoka, 25, needed just 23 putts to get around the Nishinasuno Country Club as he reeled off eight birdies to post a 64.

Kawamoto, 23, posted a matching bogey-free effort comprising eight birdies too while Sugimoto was not to be outdone by mixing nine birdies against a lone bogey.

Seasoned campaigners Shintaro Kobayashi, 36 and Tomoharu Otsuki, 33, were joint fourth in ¥50,000,000 event following an identical 65s.

Kataoka, who claimed the honour as the tournament's inaugural winner in 2021, credited a hot putter for his fine start.

"I made a lot of putts today, some long-distance ones and quite a few mid-range too. My putting hasn't been great this year, and for the past month and a half, I haven't been able to perform as I wanted," said Kataoka, who's playing in his third full season on JGTO.

"Even today, it didn't feel good to me, but somehow they went in.

"Normally, I would have had near misses consistently, whether it was the line or the touch, but today, they went in. I'm lost for words to explain too."

Kataoka will be hoping to make the most of the good start and try to return to the winners' circle.

Since the last triumph, he came close twice with runner-up finishes at the 2021 Bridgestone Open Japan PGA Championship last year.

He didn't have the best of starts this year, missing six cuts in his first six appearances. He was T66 at the ASO Iizuka Challenged and T59 at Hana Bank Invitational the last two weeks.

"The swing has been feeling pretty good for a while now, but I lacked the mental aspect and other things that prevented me from performing well in tournaments," he explained.

"However, I feel like I've gradually started to be able to execute it in matches, so I believe that's where the results are showing."

Like Kataoka, Kawamoto believes he's gradually returning to his best.

Kawamoto was a revelation in his rookie season last year, securing his breakthrough in his seventh start at the Sansan KBC Augusta before adding a second at Vantelin Tokai Classic.

He finds it difficult to replicate the same form this year, but a solo fifth outing last week seems to have done his confidence a wonder.

"Since the ASO week (where he finished T25), I've been improving a lot, and being able to shoot a good score like this shows that I'm trending in the right direction," said Kawamoto.

Leading first round scores:

64: Naoyuki Kataoka, Riki Kawamoto Eric Sugimoto;

65: Shintaro Kobayashi, Tomoharu Otsuki;

66: Koumei Oda, Justin De Los Santos;

67: Yoshitaka Takeya, Yuta Uetake, Han Lee (US), Yosuke Asaji, Yujiro Ohori, Song Young-han (Kor), Ren Yonezawa, Mikiya Akutsu.