On his first day as a professional Taiga Sugihara successfully made a great round scoring 3 under for the day. He received a surprising ticket to this week's tournament as he finishes within Top 10 last week and one condition, he had to clear was to turn professional right away.

"I am being able to enjoy this tournament which I wasn't supposed to be participating. But I wasn't nervous today as I was when I challenged here when I was an amateur."

His 1st tee shot as a professional was very relaxed and smooth. First professional birdie came at 4th hole, after his 2nd shot hitting the trees and landed into trees again, and on his 3rd shot which he thought "I shot it too high", but that miss shot reached very close to the pin for tap-in.

"It was like a roller coaster ride, but it was very me, I guess."

Taiga is obviously named after "Tiger Woods", and he watched Tiger win at Phoenix CC in 2004 and 2005 with his family.

"I think I was in kindergarten. Didn't even know who Tiger was. I wasn't watching the game and playing around."

He realized how great Tiger is after he went to elementary school. He is feeling grateful that he started off his professional career at the memorable tournament, but he says, "I will just concentrate on my game as I did when I was an amateur. Nothing will change."

On 332 yards Par 4 13th, his tee shot with 3W went near the left side bunker. He became 2nd among the Japanese player with average of 310.5 yards on the 2 measurement holes on 1R. He says his strong point is distance and he used it to great advantage to finish 14T on his first round as a professional.

"Only difference between amateur and professional for me is that I will be able to receive prize money. But that is all after I safely make the cutline."