The Round 1 of the Heiwa PGM Championship has 40 somethings listed up on the top of the leaderboard. Katsumasa Miyamoto on the top with 4 other players and on the 5T 1 shot behind group sits Tetsuji Hiratsuka who just turned 48 on Nov 6th.

He was at 4 under coming into final 9th, where his tee shot got stuck behind the trees and missed his 2nd shot to the green side rough. His short game was superb, and it almost went in, but he eventually saved a par.
"It was more than good play today. I never thought I could play like this."

He has entered this tournament 3 years in a row with sponsors invitation.
"I was blessed to receive the invitation, so I wanted to play well."
His effort worked out very well for Round 1.

He has turned Pro in 1994 and has marked 6 wins in Japan Tour and 3 more on Asian Tour. Now Shugo Imahira is known to be the Mr. Constancy, but that used to be Tetsuji's nickname. He had 12 top 10s in 2003. He eventually won his first ever victory at the last event JT Cup, but until that win, he was focused as "could be first ever Order of Merit Champion without a win".

Tetsuji also kept on playing the tournament with broken bones, with that he was nicknamed "Iron man". He had his left elbow operated and had back pain problems which lead him to lose his seed at 2017 season.

This Heiwa PGM Championship is his second tournament on the regular tour, but he has been busy jumping around the Challenge Tournament's Abema Tour and some District Open tournaments. He also takes his extra time to give back to golf by teaching juniors. He has established a junior golf schools 15 years ago, and now his students currently count up to 150 members.

"Junior students are too young and doesn't know my golden days. So, I want to play well this week and show them that I can still play. That might give them courage."