Day 3 at the Japan Golf Open Championship at Koga GC was a busy day, since 60 players had to finish the remaining holes from the Round 2 and move on to Round 3 holes from the afternoon. Eventually, most of the players were not able to finish the Round 3 holes, and they will have another tough day on Sunday. Remaining Round 3 will resume from 7:50 am and right after they hole out, players will not the shuffle according to the score, and they will remain in same groupings and go straight to the Final Round play.

Provisional leader after the suspended Round 3 with 3 shots lead is Koki Shiomi, 29 years old and playing his 11th year as a Pro. He played the reaming 13 holes of the Round 2 in the morning and became solo leader. Then he went on to play the Round 3 games. He had some trouble shots but kept saving pars by making long par putts and great bunker shots. His patient golf all paid off at 9th, where he finally made his 1st birdie of that round.

After the turn on 10th, he had a long par putt left as the horn signal went off, but he tried to finish the hole. His part putt was too short, and he made bogey there, but still he has 3 shots lead against the field. By the time he came back to the clubhouse, it was after 17:30.
"I was out on the course from 8 am, so it was a pretty long day."

Shugo Imahira, who sit at 1 under, went to same high school as Koki. When Koki was in his senior year in high school and was the captain of the golf club, Shugo came in as a freshman, but won the Japan Junior with big margin to the runner-up. At that tournament, Hideki Matsuyama was 5th and Koki finished at 7th.

"Since junior days, Shugo was really talented. His putter was hot, maybe better than now. His accuracy is great, and he has total balance too. He didn't have much of distance then, but now he could really hit it long too. He is younger than me, but I admire and respect him. I would really want to finish at least in the top 5. If I get to win that will be wonderful."

Since there will be no shuffling of the pairings, Koki and Shugo will be in the same final group for the whole day tomorrow.
"I know Shugo is few levels better than me, he is current No.1 Money Ranker. I know I will have tough time tomorrow and will have lots of pressure, but I will runaway desperately."