Last year Toru Taniguchi has won his 20th victory at Japan PGA, which offers him 5 years exemption. So, he is eligible to play on the Regular Tour until year 2022. He also has won Japan Senior PGA on his 2nd season in Senior Tour.

Even he is qualified to play on the Regular Tour on other exemption and he could also be in contention on the Senior Tour, losing the Tour Card according to Money Rankings hurts his pride.

Toru was at 99th on the Money Rankings, too far from succeeding to keep the Tour Card. He finished his final tournament of this year at 93T and missed the cutline. His record of keeping the Tour Card for 22 years, same tied record with Shingo Katayama and Hiroyuki Fujita has ended.

When the press gathered around him, he was speechless. He looked down for a while and when he raised his face up, he was in tears.
"I have done everything I could think of during the off season. I never worked any harder, but I just couldn't hit the shots that I wanted to. I fought hard for full year, but the result was miserable."

He may be left behind with the distance to the young guns, but veteran has great short game techniques.
"But I couldn't make any advantages with my short games either because I had too much trouble reaching the green. I know a lot of players has gone through what I am going through right now, but I thought it would be few years later. It didn't hit me seriously until the beginning of this season. I am really disappointed. But as you age, you must work harder to keep up. I know this is not the total end for me. I will analyze my failure for this season and brush it up during my off season to be ready for next season. Every player starts off fresh at the beginning of the season, so I want to do my best to make a good start too."

Toru was in tears but this 51 years old hasn't given up at all. His strong ambition for improvement backs up his challenge for the future.