Higa and Co. resumes pursuit of DP World Tour glory in India

JGTO trio led by its prize money king Kazuki Higa will have one final opportunity to stamp their mark before the DP World Tour's six-week-long Middle East and Asian Swing ends at the Hero Indian Open this week.

To date, Rikuya Hoshino was the best-performing Japanese representative throughout the last five stops of the DP World Tour stops by tying for the sixth spot at the Ras Al-Khaimah Championship in the United Arab Emirates three weeks ago.

Higa could have become the next top-10 finisher at the Thailand Classic last Sunday but fell out of the top-five position midway through the final round to settle for joint 11th.

Higa, who had also finished tied-36th at the Ras Al Khaimah Championship, will be eager to make amends before returning to Japan when he tees it up at the DLF Golf and Country Club in New Delhi on Thursday.

A strong finish will help him to move up on the season-long Race to Dubai ranking, in which he currently sits 121st.

Joining Higa this week are Ryo Hisatsune, Aguri Iwasaki and Masahiro Kawamura, the sole Japanese who hold the full card on DP World Tour.

Hisatsune has been making the most of the access as a DP World Tour Qualifying School graduate and made five appearances thus far.

He did well to finish joint runner-up at the Australian PGA Championship, but has failed to finish anywhere close to the top 10 in the last four starts.

As for Iwasaki, he will certainly be looking to take advantage of his only third DP World Tour appearance this week.

With a conditional status attained from being the top three JGTO Money Ranking finishers, Iwasaki found DP World Tour playing opportunity hard to come by.

He made it to the Ras Al Khaimah Championship and Singapore Classic field only on the eve of the tournament and missed out on the Thailand Classic last week.

He finished tied-61st in UAE and missed the cut in Singapore.