Todd Baek

Korea born American, Todd Baek and Jinichiro Kozuma both finished as total 9 under to take the leaders' spots. Todd scored 67, including the 14-meter eagle putt on last hole of his front nine 18th.

"I believe that if I concentrate on my golf and stay patient, good result will follow."

As for Jinichiro, his golf seems to be in good condition.

"But I can't make satisfying shot when I swing long clubs."

He is recalling to the shot on final 18th, where he got caught in the roughs near the left-side bunkers.

"I was forced to lay up."

He shot it out to the fairway, then from 110 yards with his 52 degrees wedge, he stuck it to 80cm for birdie.

 Junichiro Kozuma

He performed great round yesterday by making 5 straight birdies from his starting hole, but after the round he was feeling so exhausted. He had light meal for dinner and went to bed around 9PM and woke up at 5AM.

"If I grade my power for 1R as 40%, today was still 70%. I am feeling much better than yesterday and my body movement is okay, but my shots are not at all satisfactory."

He may have some worries on his long clubs, but his short game and putting was good enough to give him 3 straight birdies from 4th to 6th holes.

"May be its better that I can't feel much expectation on myself. Because I would decide to do whatever that I could do best at each moment."

In 2016, Jinichiro played along with Shingo Katayama in final group on Sunday.

"Shingo was playing superb golf. There was no space for mistakes. Even if he made miss shots, he was eventually making tap-in for par and putting pressure to other rivals."

"I remember that tournament with strong memory since even I lost to Shingo, I was able to finish at 4th, and earned my Tour Seed for the first time."

It has been 5 years since. Now Jinichiro is a regular on the Tour and has won his 1 t victory last year in November. He has been making good results and finished 2T three times since September.

"I know I have become better since 5 years ago, so maybe I am a bit closer to Shingo back then."