It was still cold and windy condition at Gotemba, but No.1 long hitter was playing very "hot". 7th year professional Takahiro Hataji struggled hard to keep 1T position.

"I tried to maintain and was able to keep the top position today."

His day started out bad, as he made miss shot with his 5W on 1st tee.

"I started out with really bad image."

He also faced trouble on long 510 yards Par 4 6th.

"I just can't play well on this hole. It's long so I could consider it as Par 5, but still making a bogey draws me into bad tempo."

He made the turn with 2 bogeys.

"I told myself to make up for the loss on my back nine. It wasn't bad but my shots ended up in weird places. On 15 and 16, my tee shot went near the bunker and it was difficult to stand. It felt like unlucky day."

But he made 3 birdies and finished with 69. He played 1 under for the day and tied as leader with Takumi Kanaya going onto the weekends.

It was really windy day, but during the afternoon the sunshine help the players from the chill.

"I got hot and took my sweater off. Later it did get colder, but I didn't want to put the sweater back on since it might affect my swing. So, I played with half sleeves in freezing temperature."

Takahiro got married on November 1st, since he liked the idea of having triple 1s. His wife, Shiho has been supporting him for past 3 years, as he fought on the cub-tour AbemaTV Tours.

"She has been watching and supporting me. After being able to play on the Regular Tour, now I am looking way higher to next level. I want to jump out to US Tours. I am planning to challenge the US cub-tour QT next season. She is fluent English speaker, so I am counting on her. Of course, I want to show her my 1st victory, but also much much bigger stage in the future."