Ryo Ishikawa has one round left to challenge to become 6th player to succeed in defending his JT Cup title. He will start off at 6T with 4 shot deficit.

Saturday's R3 was freezing cold weather. Ryo wore knit cap and hoodie dawn jacket, but the chilling wind made his body froze. He had 3 birdies on his front nine and was narrowing his gap with the leaders but as holes went on, he could feel that his body temperature was dropping.

He couldn't make the 2-meter par putt on the 9th, and then went on to bogey the next 10th too.
"On my back nine, I lost so much distance. I was pumped up with adrenalin, but my body just couldn't move. It was too cold."

Then his tee shot started to break left.
"Those miss shots were nothing I was prepared for. Everything started to crumble. I messed up on my back nine and lost all the birdies I made in my front nine. I was encouraging myself to do better and that also got me stiffer on my swings. I was doing everything in wrong direction. It was really miserable round."

It was regretful back nine for Ryo, but he did get 1 back at the 17th with a birdie.
"I am at 3 under, but there are only 5 players who are above me. I think the contention will be within 10 players max. I know the weather will be much better tomorrow, so I know all of the players will score better. So, I want to be able to give myself a good chance to aim for the pin on my 2nd shots with shorter Irons, either I hit my tee shot with Driver or 3W. If I could make this strategy work tomorrow, I might be able to make big score and catch up."

"I thought JT Cup could be cancelled and I won't be able to come back as the Defending Champion this year, but thanks to so many support, we were able to have the tournament. So, to give back to all of the support, I will keep my mental strong and won't give up until the end. I want to end with best score out of 4 rounds this week."

To become the 6th player to defend the JT Cup title, Ryo is willing to make aggressive Sunday charge.