9th year professional Hideto Kobukuro, who is currently 163rd on Money Rankings made a great performance on Saturday to finish as 2T, 1 shot behind the leader. He will be in the final group on the Final Round for the first time in his career.

Hideto received sponsor's invitation to this year's Dunlop Phoenix. This is his 6th tournament of the season, and he has made the cut since he did back in May at Japan Players Championship by Sato Shokuhin.

He started out as 10T with 9 under.

"I was excited to see the spectators at the course but also got me really nervous."

This nervousness led to stiffness in his body, which resulted as a bogey on 2nd. But by the time he got to the 521 yards Par 5 7th, he was felling relaxed again. His 2nd shot from 200 yards with 7I was "Perfect. I was able to hit as I desired", Hideto recalled. It reached 40 cm to the pin. With this eagle, he got on the roll and went on making 4 birdies to become 2T.

Leader, Ryosuke Kinoshita is same grade as Hideto.

"I have 2 more big names in my grade, Hideki Matsuyama and Ryo Ishikawa."

In 2011 at his junior grade in Nippon University, he won against Hideki Matsuyama in Asahi Cup Japan University Student Championship and won the Japan Amateur Championship next year. He turned professional right after but couldn't come to the Regular Tour until he became 9th on the Money Rankings with 1 win on the cub-tour AbemaTV Tour.

"Comparing to Hideki and Ryo, who won as amateurs and become superheroes I did take time to come up on this stage. But this is my style. I need to build strong backbone before entering the Regular Tour. I think having stable confidence will help me when I start to battle on the Tour. "

He has played for 5 tournaments in the Regular Tour this season and his earnings is just 908,875-yen and stands at 163rd. If he manages to win his 1st victory on his sponsor's tournament, that will be the best way to show his appreciations, and he will also earn his Tour Seed for next season.