Park’s love affair with Fujisankei Classic continues

South Korea's Sanghyun Park continued his love affair with the Fujizakura Country Club as he took a step closer to his second victory in as many starts at the Fujisankei Classic.

The 39-year-old carded his second straight four-under-par 67 to open up a two-shot lead ahead of the pack following the penultimate round on Saturday.

His 11-under 202 put her two shots clear of second-placed Hiroshi Iwata, who's vying for his second victory in three starts after winning the Shigeo Nagashima Invitational Sega Sammy Cup two weeks ago.

Park, who won the tournament the last time he played in 2019, was in steady form the moment he returned in the morning to finish his incomplete second round.

He birdied two of his remaining seven holes to reach the halfway stage one shot behind Aguri Iwasaki.

Park then continued his bogey-free run over the next 18 holes, picking up shots at the sixth, ninth, 11th and 17th to put himself on the brink of a third JGTO victory.

"Playing 25 holes in a day is quite tiring, but I can't complain at all because there was no bogey!" said Park, also the 2016 Golf Nippon Series JT Cup winner.

"This course can be very difficult to deal with, but I still try my best to aim for the pin. I hit many greens today, so I guess that has made the difference today and helped me to achieve a bogey-free round.

"The memory of winning the tournament back in 2019 is still fresh in my mind. Hopefully, I can repeat it."

Iwata overcame a topsy-turvy front-nine featuring two birdies with three bogeys by firing an eagle on par-five 15th to back up the three more birdies he recorded at 11th, 12th, and 17th.

Iwata will be vying to win the Fujisankei Classic for the second time having emerged as champion in 2014.

Ryosuke Kinoshita (67) and Kaito Onishi (68) shared third on 205, one stroke ahead of Iwasaki (72) with Taihei Saito (68) sixth on 207.

Thailand's Gunn Charoenkul and American Todd Baek carded matching 70s to be tied for 19th together with South Korea's Dongkyu Jong (69) on 212.