Last year, Rikuya Hoshino grabbed his first win with the wire-to-wire victory. His family gathered and they had shed the tears of joy. It was very emotional and memorable first win for him. Now bigger and stronger Rikuya returns to the Fujizakura CC to do a repeat V.

This season Rikuya has got his 2nd victory under his belt at the Dunlop Srixon Fukushima Open in June. He is also the leader in the Mercedes Bentz Total Point Ranking. (Ranking of total 9 different stats.) And Rikuya finished as solo 2nd at the Keya GC last week.

Rikuya's one of the most wanted goal for this season is to make it to the PGA co-sanctioned "ZOZO Championship" field. Already, Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Hideki Matsuyama has announced their appearance. Ryo Ishikawa was announced last week that he was invited by the sponsor. It is literary dream stage for all of the Tour players and Rikuya is eager to make it a "dream come true".

The gate is open to the top 3 players at the Bridgestone Open in October, and to the top 7 players of the ZOZO ranking, which is the Money Ranking from this season's SMBC Singapore Open up until the end of October's Bridgestone Open. Now, Rikuya stands at 3rd in ZOZO rankings. He knows that defending his title this week is the best way to keep his seat, and he is ready to do so.