Kakazu in four-way lead after opening round at Sega Sammy Cup

Terumichi Kakazu fired a flawless seven-under-par 65 to sit in a four-way tie for the lead after the first round of the Shigeo Nagashima Invitational Sega Sammy Cup on Thursday.

Kakazu,  seeking his maiden JGTO victory, shares the leaderboard with Tomoyasu Sugiyama, Tomoharu Otsuki, the 2022 runner-up, and Yuki Inamori in the tournament held at The North Country Golf Club in Hokkaido.

The 34-year-old Kakazu got off to an encouraging start with four birdies in his first eight holes before wrapping up his day with three more gains on holes 13, 16, and 18.

This is the second time Kakazu has found himself in the lead after claiming a share of the lead at the halfway stage of the Token Homemate Cup in March. He eventually finished tied for eighth.

"I've had a good start, so I want to aim for the win, but since we're only a quarter of the way through, I plan to take it one step at a time and work steadily from tomorrow," said Kakazu, a 13-year professional.

The 31-year-old Sugiyama enjoyed a blistering start after teeing off from the 10th hole, making five consecutive birdies from the 11th.

After the turn, he picked up three more shots on the first, third, and fourth but eventually dropped his first bogey on the eighth, preventing him from ending the day as the sole leader.

Otsuki put himself in contention for the title he narrowly missed two years ago, finishing just two shots behind Hiroshi Iwata. His splendid performance included an eagle on the third hole and five birdies.

"I think it's important to minimise bogeys, and if I can capitalise on the opportunities when they arise, I should be able to improve my score," said Otsuki.

"I expect the scores to be really low, so my initial goal is to keep up and secure my passage to the weekend rounds."

Inamori, coming off a joint runner-up finish at last week's Japan PGA Championship, continued his momentum with another strong title challenge. He got off to a flying start, carding eight birdies and just one bogey.

However, last week's Japan PGA Championship winner, Yuta Sugiura, had his hopes of securing consecutive victories dashed when he was forced to withdraw just before the first round began.

He cited pain in his right elbow as the reason and opted not to take any risks

Leading first round scores:
65: Terumichi Kakazu, Tomoyasu Sugiyama, Tomoharu Otsuki, Yuki Inamori;
66: Naoyuki Kaneda, Taiki Yoshida, Kensei Hirata, Shugo Imahira, Satoshi Kodaira, Tomohiro Kondo;
67: Daiki Imano, Shintaro Kobayashi, Yusaku Hosono, Yujiro Ohori, Taiga Nagano, Mikiya Akutsu, Koshiro Maeda, Mikumu Horikawa.

Ends.