Saffas chase leading quartet in Japan

Stimpmeter · April 26, 2024, 4:15pm

Local favourite Taihei Sato fired a brilliant 62 to join DP World Tour stars Sam Bairstow, Yannik Paul and Sebastian Söderberg at the top of the leaderboard after day two of the ISPS Handa Championship.

This week’s penultimate event of the Asian Swing is co-sanctioned with the Japan Golf Tour Organisation and with big crowds gathered at Taiheiyo Club Gotemba Course, Sato was giving them something to cheer in round two.

After round one was completed early in the morning following Thursday’s fog delay, Englishman Bairstow was the man to set the target with a 64 but he would not be alone for long.

Söderberg and Paul joined him at 10 under with rounds of 64 and 65 respectively, before Sato completed his eight under par effort to make it a four-way tie.

England’s Matthew Southgate and Frenchman Tom Vaillant were then at eight under after rounds of 65 alongside Japan’s Taiki Yoshida, who had three holes to complete on day three after going out in the final group.

England’s Will Enefer, Japanese Ryosuke Kinoshita and Northern Ireland’s Tom McKibbin were at seven under in the clubhouse.

Casey Jarvis was the leading South African, also on seven under, with three holes still to play, while Jacques Kruyswijk was on six under and Christiaan Bezuidenhout on five under after rounds of 66 and 67 respectively.

Bairstow was the only member the leading quartet to have holes to complete from round one and after making a bogey and an eagle to sign for a 66, he started round two with seven pars before birdieing the 17th and eagling the 18th for the second time.

Further gains followed on the 1st, 3rd and 5th and while he dropped a shot on the 6th, the European Challenge Tour graduate birdied the 8th to lead the way.

“Very solid, yesterday with the delay it was nice to finish with a couple of birdies then come out this morning to finish strong and take it into the second round,” he said.

“I’ve played 18 alright today, so hopefully keep doing that. Hit a couple of nice shots, holed a couple of putts.

“Just keeping things simple, sometimes you can overthink it. Keeping my swing feels and putting stroke simple, and trying to enjoy it.”

Playing partners Paul and Söderberg made blistering starts, with the Swede birdieing his first four holes with some dialled-in iron play and Paul making gains on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd.

The German then also birdied the 8th and 10th in a bogey-free effort to join Bairstow at the summit.

“I played better than yesterday, got off to a good start and then the last eight holes a couple of good shots didn’t go as close and I didn’t make as many putts as the beginning,” said Paul. “Overall satisfied with the performance.

“I don’t look at the leaderboard, I just try to stick to the process. Sometimes I get too distracted about the outcome. My main goal is to focus on the process and not the result or the leaderboard. Just see where I end up on Sunday.”

Söderberg bogeyed the 6th and 11th but kept in touch with a long putt on the 10th and fantastic recovery after a poor tee-shot on the 12th.

An approach to three feet at the 15th was then followed by another to 10 feet at the next.

“It felt good, gave myself a lot of chances and I was hitting it well with the irons,” he said.

“It was a bit better today, but I still feel like I’m hitting a few loose drives. Most of the time I have gotten away with it. A few times I had to make good up-and-downs to save par. Overall it’s been very good into and around the greens.”

Sato turned in 30 with birdies on the 10th, 12th, 15th, 17th and 18th and added further gains on the 1st and 3rd.

After a bogey on the 4th, it looked like we would have three Europeans atop the leaderboard but the 30-year-old kept the local flag flying with a birdie-birdie finish to also hit the front.

“I’ve been hitting it well for the past two days so I’m feeling good,” he said. “The DP World Tour is a very special Tour for me. As this tournament is being conducted in Japan I want to do my best and get a good result.”

Southgate had to play 27 holes on Friday and after completing a first-round 67, he birdied seven of his last 11 in round two, including the final four, to fly up the leaderboard.

Vaillant finished the last six holes of his first round in level par for a 67 before carding six birdies and a single bogey in round two.

– Edited report from DP World Tour

Photo: Yong Teck Lim/Getty Images

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