Article
Mynavi ABC Championship 2018
21 years old Takashi Ogiso makes his first ever Top Place on the leaderboard
This new face is only 21 years old and still a college student, who closed the first round with 7 under par play. He birdied the first 2 holes, 5-meters on the 10th and, 7-meters on the 11th.
"Starting off with 2 birdies in a row gave me a big boost."
Who ended up with 8 birdies.
Takashi made his way to this tournament by getting through the tough Monday Qualify.
"I had hard times swinging the driver on the downwind holes on the Monday Qualify, so I relied on 3 wood today."
"My plans it to aim at the pin from the fairway" says Takashi, who found the fairways most of the times which benefitted him on the long nasty rough settings this year.
The runner-up at last week's Bridgestone Open, Masahiro Kawamura is Takashi's Senior at same High School in Fukui Prefecture.
"I really wanted him to win."
Takashi rushed to the 18th green to congratulate, but Masahiro could not make it.
This week at practice round, Masahiro gave some tips to Takashi.
"Takashi, you tend to have your club face open, closed it a bit."
This really worked!
This season, Takashi grabbed his chance to play in the regular tour by finishing 27 on Final QT.
Now he is at 78th on the Money Ranking.
"If I want to stay in this field, I got to get my Tour Card."
Takashi won the Japan Amateur at age on 17 and 115 days. This is the youngest among Japanese which he broke the record of Tsuneyuki Nakajima (in 1973).
Takashi stays in college because if he does well in Pro, his college will be noticed.
"I want to give something back to my college."
Takashi has been playing in Pro Tours as an amateur, but he felt it was too hard to get going on the Tour.But Takashi has earned his experiences and wants to grab his chance to win before he graduates next spring. Many young guns are making their way now, and Takashi wants to me one of them. Takashi can have his hopes up, since there have been 5 Monday Qualifiers who have done the miracle victory.
"I think I have a good chance" say, Takashi.
With big hopes and confidence, he is aiming for that Big V.