This week's venue, Sumire course is one of Ryo's practice ground since his junior days. He knows this course inside and out, which lead to today's best score 65, and jumped him up to 3T, 2 shots behind the winner on the leader board.
"I think I had great round. I don't think I never scored this well on my private rounds."

Ryo hasn't been able to grab this prestigious Major title yet, and he hoped that home course advantage will benefit him.
"I knew that I have to get at least 4 to 5 under today in order to win. I have changed my strategy from yesterday and went aggressive. That plan came out great today."

As he stated, on the 1st tee where he has been choosing 3W for the drive, "I wanted to start off with the birdie, so I chose 1W" recalled Ryo. His shot from the fairway with PW got him the birdie chance but couldn't hole it. Still he was already pumped up.
"I chose 3W on 2nd and left myself 9I to play."
This led to birdie and he pushed himself to top gear.

Ryo's aggressive plan sparked on 14th, where he took his 1W instead of 4I that he has been using for past 3 rounds and blasted it off gain another birdie.
"I am glad that I was able to play so well and had the chance to almost catch up with the leader."

if Ryo hadn't scored 3 over on R1, he could have got his hands on the trophy.
"But overall, I am glad that I was able to get myself in the contention. I was pumped up but still knew clearly what to do"

Ryo tried to get it on in two at long Par 5 18th, but his 2nd shot got caught in the bunker. He had 40 yards left from the sand and got it to 5-meter birdie chance. And the super star didn't miss that chance and hole it for his 7th birdie of the day.
"That birdie gave me confidence and much more to achieve for the tournament next week."

Next week, Ryo will fly over to California to be in USPGA co-sanctioned ZOZO Championship. This will be his 2 years in a row appurtenance at this big event.
"Next week will be much bigger tournament and I am really excited to play. I will do what I need to do and use the experiences I gained from this year's US Open and this week's Major. I hope I could make these experiences work positively on my game."

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