Kennedy shows mettle

Fit-again Brad Kennedy demonstrated that he remains a force to be reckoned with when he shot a four-under-par 68 to finish in a five-way tie for the first round lead at the Japan PGA Championship in Hokkaido on Thursday.

The four other early pace setters include Ryo Ishikawa, the 2019 winner, Kensei Hirata, South Korea's Hwang Jung-gon and Tomoyo Ikemura.

They hold a one-shot lead over a group of five players sharing the sixth spot.

The 49-year-old Australian, well-known as a consistent performer on JGTO, has only made five starts so far this season due to a knee injury sustained during the BMW Japan Golf Tour Championship Mori Building Cup in early June.

Before that, the three-time JGTO winner Kennedy was also unexpectedly struggling to put himself into contention, with only a tied 12th finish at the Kansai Open as his best achievement to date.

However, judging from his opening round performance at the Eniwa Country Club today, Kennedy seems to be back to his usual form and ready to make up for lost time.

"I was forced to withdraw on the second day of the JGT Championship due to right knee pain. Following that, I had to undergo rehabilitation for about six weeks," said Kennedy, after mixing six birdies with two bogeys.

"During that period, I didn't play much golf and primarily focused on training.

"After a brief hiatus, it feels so refreshing and my golf game is feeling great.

"I am looking forward to putting together good scores for the rest of the week."

"I look forward to putting together good scores for the rest of the week."

Kennedy will give the Japan PGA Championship title a shot after he once came close with a runner-up finish in 2017, then at Kanehide Kise Country Club in Okinawa.

Ishikawa underlined his intention to reclaim the title he claimed four years ago after registering a bogey-free round containing four birdies.

"I think I did the best score I could.  I had some miss-shots and had to hit from deep rough, so I wouldn't have been surprised if my score was worse," said the 18-time Tour winner.

"Golf is a competition that lasts four rounds, so tomorrow will be a completely different day.

"I want to be able to do what I couldn't do today tomorrow. I have about 24 hours until the start of tomorrow, so I think it's quite challenging."

Leading first round scores:

68: Ryo Ishikawa, Brad Kennedy (Aus), Kensei Hirata, Hwang Jung-gon (Kor), Tomoyo Ikemura;

69: Akira Endo, Tomohiro Ishizaka, Tomoharu Otsuki, Masamichi Ito, Kunihiro Kamii;

70: Ryu Hyun-woo (Kor), Atomu Shigenaga, Taiga Semikawa, Shota Ueki, Todd Baek (US), Satoshi Hara.