Shugo Imahira, 2 consecutive year Orde of Merit Champion got his name back on the track to make 3-peat on defending the title. Shugo finally got his 1st victory of the season.

He started out 3 shot behind the leader Ryo Ishikawa, but he ended the round with 4 shot lead against the runner-ups. Now he jumped to 6th on Money Rankings. If he succeeds in making 3-peat for the Orde of Merit Champion title, he will become 4th player to do so following, Isao Aoki, Junbo Ozaki and Shingo Katayama.

Big turning point came for Shugo on Par 4 5th. His 2nd shot went over the green.
"I thought that there was a chance for making bogey or even double bogey. That is the last place you'd want to hit, but I missed."

But his 3rd shot bounced and rolled to make chip-in birdie. From that miraculous shot, Shugo came to think, it could be my day. He made the turn with 2 under, then added 2 more on 11 and 12, and took away the lead.

Shugo known to play cool was making fist pumps today, because he was all fired up playing along his same age buddy, Kenshiro Ikegami. They have been buddies since junior days.
"I used to teach him the spots you must avoid when we went on the practice rounds."

Shugo was having friendly conversation with Kenshiro. He was told that Kenshiro was heading to QT for Japan Open, and Shugo encouraged him.

"But the tournament we are battling is a different story. I just didn't want to lose against my buddy."
Shugo was motivated and showed his fight with 5 birdies on his back nine.

During the pandemic stay home season, Shugo took time on physical training so he could gain more distance. But taking distance over control got him use stability on his irons and short games.
"It wasn't helping my score. So, I started to train less and my feeling got back and good results followed."

Shugo has been in Top 10 for 5 consecutive years at Fuji Sankei Classic.
"I am glad that I finally won. But we have more tournaments coming and, I will fight hard to win 2 more at least and become Order of Merit Champion 3 years in a row."