"Eldest tournament host professional" closed his 3R with great style. No other player was able to make birdie when they got caught in the right-side bunker on 18th, but this 42 years old said, "it wasn't that difficult" and got it out to 2.5-meter and made birdie finish.

Hideto Tanihara played bogey free round with 5 birdies including the 3 consecutive birdies from 7th to score 30 on his front nine. He eventually got to total 11 under and made a leap from 11T to 2T going onto Sunday.

"When I look around, all the players are so young. They have great distance and so much talent."
Hideto was playing along with Tomoyo Ikemura, who Hideto was teaching to improve on the swing since summer and was please to see his advice was working.
"His shots got really better. It was going straight. I am proud of him."

Hideto has been sponsored by ISPS, the hosting sponsor of this tournament, for 8 years. He wanted to be ready for this new event hosted by ISPS to give back his appreciation. Last week, when the golf world was busy with ZOZO Championship, he was playing 4 rounds of golf to accompany his business relations, but still he was preparing well for this week as well.
"Last Sunday I made 11 birdies with this mallet putter back in my bag."
That mallet putter was his ace putter which earned him the best putting average award for 3 seasons in a row from 2012 to 2014.

Hideto says, he put aside this mallet putter during his challenge on EPGA Tour from 2017 since it didn't match the European greens. But he says, "it really matches Japanese greens".

"I have been struggling on many points and have been changing the gears and swing styles. But now I am back to my original swing. I am hitting fade as I did back in 2015. I told myself to think simple. If shots and putts start to work out, eventually the good score will follow. I foretold this before this tournament began, and it is really happening."

Hideto is 5 shots behind the leader Yuta Uketake, who is wishing to have his first Tour victory.
"Young players these days have strong hearts. I know 5 shot deficit is not easy task to catch up, but if Yuta gets nervous under the pressure, there might be a chance for me."
This is Hideto's 33rd times to play on the final group on Final Round and has succeeded in winning 12 times.