This is Yuta Uketake's 4th tournament on the Japan Tour, but he might have found himself a "winning equation". Yuta recalls, "I played great today, if I was to grade it, it was perfect", as he scored 68 under really tough windy condition and placed himself 4T, 3 shots behind the leader.

On his first challenge at this year's first tournament Token Homemate Cup, he struggled and score 78 getting beaten by the gusty wind.
"That time I tried to avoid the wind by hitting with low trajectory and that ended in mistakes, so I played with different strategy today. I learned from my mistakes and with playing smart on safe side, I survived the moving Saturday with descent score. Since this is my 4th tournament, and I getting used to playing on the Tour. Also, I got the sense of how to manage the 4 days battle."

Yuta again places himself for the chance of victory. He made his best finish last week as 2T, but Naoyuki Kataoka, who took away the winning trophy for last week's Japan Players Championship by Sato Shokuhin was Yuta's junior grader from same Tohoku Fukushi University. Yuta and Nayuki are also from same Hokkaido Prefecture, and it was 26 years since the last player from Hokkaido to win on the Tour.

"The year which the last player from Hokkaido won was the year I was born. I am happy that Naoyuki has done a great deal, but I am also disappointed. I want to be the next winner."

Last week, Yuta borrowed a support from his college mate, Yamato Ebina since he couldn't make the cut and carried Yuta's bag on the weekends.
"Yamato really supported me well. I was able to relax and play my game without pressure on tough putts. He mentally supported me. But this week, I couldn't ask him to caddy for me since he is a professional too, so I am getting great help from club house caddy, who is elder than my mother and knows this course inside out."

His sponsor brand for his outfit is 1PIU1UGUAL3, which means 1 plus 1 equals 3. It is a idiom in Italian meaning "if 2 people place their power together, it will produce more than 3 times of power".
This idiom might lead a way for Yuta's chance to walk on the victory road.