Iwasaki grabs late spot to Singapore, signs for opening 72

The last-minute trip to Singapore was worth it after all for Aguri Iwasaki as he signed for a modest even-par 72 in the opening round of the Singapore Classic on Thursday, despite having no practice round at all.

The 25-year-old traded four birdies against as many bogeys at the Laguna National Golf Resort Club to sit in 72^nd place alongside compatriots Taiga Semikawa and Rikuya Hoshino and world number 30 Ryan Fox of New Zealand, the highest-ranked player in this week's 132-man field.

Iwasaki wasted no time and jetted off to Singapore after being told yesterday morning that he was promoted to first place on the reserve list.

"A chance to play in another DP World Tour event was too good to be missed, so I took the chance. I kept my fingers crossed throughout my flight," said Iwasaki, who holds a conditional status on the DP World Tour by virtue of being the third-highest finisher of the JGTO Money rankings last season.

"I found out that I made the field as soon as I landed. As I arrived in Singapore at around 6 pm, I wasn't able to practice obviously.

"It was a scary experience to compete without a single clue about the course. This course is difficult with many ponds, sloppy greens and the pin positions were challenging as well. 

"Still, I managed to shoot even-par, I'm quite delighted with that."

Iwasaki had his first taste of DP World Tour action playing in the Ras Al Khaimah Championship in UAE last week.

He marked his debut with a tied-61st finish and travelled back to Japan not knowing that a second appearance could come as soon as this week at that time.

"I want to play more and more events abroad more and more. After competing with the DP Tour players last week, their level is quite high," he said.

"Now that I'm a bit settled, I hope to go low tomorrow. I want to try improve on my last week's achievement."

Semikawa was let down by two late bogeys on the 13th and 18th holes as he had to content with a 72.

"I haven't been able to play comfortably or in a way that I'm satisfied with recently, so my goal is to be able to do that again," said Semikawa, who was two-under through 11 holes after mixing four birdies with two bogeys.

Hoshino, meanwhile, will head into the second day with renewed optimism.

He left it late to eagle the 18th and completed a fine comeback after struggling with three-over at one point with five holes to play.

Tom Mckibbin of Northern Ireland emerged as the man to beat on the opening day after firing a bogey-free 64 to lead by one shot from four players namely Matthieu Pavon of France, Sami Valimaki of Finland and Swedish pair Joakim Lagergren and Simon Forsstrom.

Masahiro Kawamura spearheads the Japanese challenge as he opened with a 70 to sit in 36^th place.