Taihei Sato on his 6th year as a Pro, made another good start, following the one at JPC and Diamond Cup few weeks back.

Taihei scored bogey free 65 with 7 birdies to finish as solo 2nd after R1.
"My shots were accurate and stable, so I was hitting mostly from the fairways. I didn't make many mistakes and ended up with a good score. But I can't figure out why I am always only good on 1st Rounds."

What Taihei was referring to is, his top tie start at Japan Players Championship ending up as 50T at the end 3 weeks ago. Also, his 3T start at Asia Pacific Diamond Cup resulted as 29th on Sunday.
"I must figure out how to make my other rounds better. I should ask my senior brotherly figure Hideki Matsuyama, since he always plays better and better as rounds go by."

Hideki has been taking really good care of his university juniors, and Taihei is one of them. Hideki actually made contact with Taihei yesterday, on washed out Day 1 of this tournament saying, "You better win this week. Let's practice together in England."

"I told Hideki that I am usually good on my 1st Round, and Hideki replied that he knew. But he didn't offer me any tips about it. I never actually asked him for that advice, so maybe I should. I will ask him for advice today. Engrave his words in my mind and do whatever Hideki tells me, that should work!"

Hopefully, Hideki's share of wisdom might be just in time to let Taihei's bad jinx to go away by the tee off time tomorrow.