Consecutive crowned 2018 & 2019 Order of Merit Champion, Shugo Imahira is all set to gain his most wanted big title. His feeling of confidence is also shown in his play.
"When I got here to Nikko CC, I was this tournament course is very suitable to my style of play. I knew I will be playing comfortably this week."

As Shugo predicted, he has added his birdies to total to 8 under after the 2 rounds. He started from inward holes, and on 11th, his shot from 130 yards with PW almost made it into the hole. After the tap-in birdie, he went on to make back-to-back on 12th by holing 3-meter.
"For the past 2 days, my iron shots are perfect."

Shugo stopped putting too much effort on weight training during the off season.
"I trained too much in the off season, and I gained too much strength on my upper body, that effected mt swing. I couldn't adjust it, so now I train less and give my body to ease out. This helped me to gain more distance and I don't get tired much."

Shugo's precise shots are back, and his putting problem was also solved by his coach. He placed 2 putters in his bag on the Final Round last week.
"Just to get some new inspiration, I chose 1 putter from the 8 putters I had, and also kept my regular ace putter. I played with the new one for the first 4 holes. It didn't work so I went back to my regular ace putter and then I got 5 straight birdies from there. I regained my confidence on my ace putter."

Shugo finished at 6T, the best result for this year, and his momentum seems to be continuing.
"Now it is up to my mental toughness."

Until last year, Shugo was the one who would had been chosen as the Representative for Tokyo Olympics, but he lost that chance due to pandemic. 2 weeks ago, the Representatives were announced.
"When I found out that I won't be making the Olympics, I simply changed my goal. Now my goal is to win at least 1 tournament and defend the title of the Order of Merit Champion for 3 seasons in a row. I have 4 career wins, and 2 consecutive Orde of Merit title, but I don't have the Japanese Major yet. So, I want to get that under my belt this week."