JGTO Abroad: Semikawa makes move while Hisatune slips in the US

Taiga Semikawa fired a brilliant second-round five-under-par 67 on Thursday, climbing to a share of tied 23rd at the Farmers Insurance Open in California. However, it was a day to forget for Ryo Hisatsune.

After opening with a modest 71 at the tougher North Course of the Torrey Pines Golf Course, Semikawa bounced back strongly by mixing his scorecard with two eagles, three birdies, and two bogeys to reach the 36-hole mark at six-under 138.

This enabled Semikawa to rise 49 spots from where he started the day, leaving him six shots back of Stephen Jaeger of Germany, who carded a 64 at the North Course to lead by one shot from Denmark's Nicolai Hojgaard.

Hisatsune, on the other hand, finds himself tumbling down the leaderboard from tied second to tied 50th following a difficult round that saw him battling to 75 at the South Course.

He dropped a total of five shots, including a double bogey on the 11th hole, his second of the day having started from the 10th tee.

Hisatsune managed two birdies to minimize the damage, but the disappointing effort could have just derailed his bid to contend for a maiden PGA Tour victory in what is his third start as a full member.

Heading into the penultimate stage at four-under, Hisatsune has an eight-shot deficit to make up for, as well as the challenging South Course to deal with.

Even an eight-time PGA Tour winner like Hideki Matsuyama struggled to tame the South Course, but he did well to salvage a 71 after scoring a memorable first hole-in-one of his PGA Tour career.

He accomplished the feat on the 165-yard eighth hole with an eight-iron, thus becoming the first Japanese player to make an ace on the PGA Tour since Ryo Ishikawa, who did it at the 2015 Quicken Loans National.

Matsuyama complemented the ace with three birdies, but he also dropped as many as four shots to be tied for 10th on seven-under.

In the United Arab Emirates, reigning JGTO number one Keita Nakajima could only muster an even-par 72 to start his campaign at the DP World Tour's Ras Al Khaimah Championship in joint 86th.

Rikuya Hoshino and Masahiro Kawamura also made a modest start, carding 70 and 71 respectively to tie for 48th and 67th.

England's Callum Shinkwin set the early pace after blazing the Al Hamra Golf Club course with an 11-birdie round for 62.

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