Tour rookie, Tomoharu Ishizaka played bogey free with 7 birdies to score 64 and finished as solo 2nd after 1R.
"I only missed the fairway 3 times. My back pain is cured, and my shots were great today."

This year's venue Biwako CC's total yardage is 6986.
"Since this course is not so long. I felt my golf suites this course as I played my practice round. My short iron management worked really well today."

He strained his back for the first time in beginning of September. It was resulted of pushing himself too much on weight trainings.
"I wanted to improve myself and wanted to play on as many tournaments as I could."

Eventually, he had to withdraw on the 1R of Vantelin Tokai Classic.
"I made terrible shot on 16th. I duffed the shot, it was awful shot. I ended up down the cliff and made triple bogey. I withdrew after that so, many joked that I quitted because of my score."

He took the weekend off and his trainer cured the pain. He was back on the Tour next week, but his shots lost accuracy. He then made his swing changes to be prepared to this week's Major.
"My trainer told me I don't need to worry about my back, so I am ready."

Tomohiro is a professional but still is a senior student at Japan Wellness Sports University. He is very conscious about same university student players who are still amateurs, such as Keita Nakajima who became the 5th amateur to win on the Regular Tour and Riki Kawamoto who won a week after on cub-tour AbemaTV Tour. Especially, Tomohiro and Riki are both senior students.
"I am being really motivated and influenced by them. Riki has distance and also good with short games, so I don't want to lose against him."

If Tomohiro wins, he will become the 4th youngest winner with 22 years and 26 days.

Youngest Winner Records
1928 Rokuzou Asami at 19yrs 280dys
1977 Seve Ballesteros at 20yrs 225dys
1978 Seve Ballesteros at 21yrs 210dys
1933 Kanekichi Nakamura at 22yrs 110dys