Imahira gets JGTO season off to a winning start

Shugo Imahira picked up his eighth JGTO title by triumphing in the season-opening Token Homemate Cup as American Han Lee earned a morale-boosting joint-third placing on Sunday.

Lee, 45, enjoyed a birdie-birdie finish as he signed off the week with a five-under-par 66 to finish on 20-under 267 total, just three shots adrift of Imahira, who sparkled with a 63 at the Token Tado Country Club.

Starting the day two shots off the pace, Imahira charged up the leaderboard with a flawless round containing eight birdies.

After picking up his first on the fourth hole, he birdied seven of his last 10 holes to storm up the leaderboard before sealing a two-shot win over Rikuya Hoshino, who carded a 67.

Ryo Ishikawa, who held the joint lead with Hoshino, had five birdies to go against two bogeys for a 68 to join Lee in third.

For Lee, it marked his second straight top-10 finish in the tournament after coming in tied ninth last year.

It was also his best result since finishing outright third at the Kansai Open in April last year.

"Very happy with the week. I got to play with Shugo, who won the Order of Merit twice, a top, top player on Tour," said Lee.

"Definitely a learning experience and eye opener for me to see how he made the back nine charge. You got to make a lot putts and he did just that.

"Watching what he did kind of burned the desire in me.

"At 17th, I knew I could not catch Shugo but I wanted to try to catch Rikuya in second. It was really nice to end with two birdies."

The pleasant outing will certainly do Lee's confidence a whole world of good as he continues his relentless pursuit of being JGTO winner again after last achieving it in 2012.

Imahira said he did not let his frustration of not making putts in the front nine get to him.

"The birdie was hard to come by on the front nine, I hardly made any putt," said the 2018 and 2019 prize money king.

"But the birdie on the ninth was the turning point.

"I had a peek at the leaderboard at No 13 and realised that I was just two shots off the lead. I knew I would have to keep the birdies coming in order to catch up with the leader.

"There were huge galleries today, the cheering definitely helped me a lot. Really happy to be winning again."

Michael Hendry, the 2015 winner, failed to mount a strong challenge on the final day as he had to settle for tied 11th with six others including Song Young-han of South Korea.

The New Zealander could only muster a 71 after trading three birdies with as many bogeys.

Leading final round scores:

264: Shugo Imahira 64-66-71-63;

266: Rikuya Hoshino 68-67-64-67;

267: Han Lee (US) 66-68-67-66, Ryo Ishikawa 67-66-66-68;

269: Mikumu Horikawa 67-68-70-64, Yusaku Hosono 65-61-76-67, Takashi Ogiso 70-65-67-68;

270: Taiga Nagano 71-65-70-64, Keita Nakajima 69-70-65-66, Takumi Kanaya 64-71-66-69.