Same family name "Kinoshita", but this week Yuta, a 35 year old 14th year as professional got his name up on the top of the leaderboard. His 1st and only victory so far was 4 years back at MyNAVI ABC Championship. But after the victory he has been suffering and the best result was 12T at 2020 Fuji Sankei Classic.

"I have changed my gear in each tournament to figure out what gear could help me out. I am not a power player and I need the gear to support my weakness. My style is fade, but when the wind is picking up, I lose a lot of distances. I am helpless in the windy conditions. I have been trying to chance my shots to draw ball for past 2 years."

20-21 season has been prolonged due to pandemic, but Yuta is on his last year for the multiple year Tour Card he has.
"I am on the verge of losing my Tour Card so, I must do whatever it takes."

Yuta went back to the 1W and also put his Yonex irons back in his bag fron last week.
"I used to hit 50% each of fade and draw, but now I hit 20% draw and 80% fade, so my body won't get too tired. Now, I feel and play better."

Yuta seemed to have found his game back from R2 of last week's tournament, and this week he has gained confidence on his shots. He started from inward holes, and on Par 3 12th, he was able to secure Par even from the trouble shot. From this Par save Yuta got on the roll. He made back-to-back birdies on 15th and 16th by making 5-meters, then after the turn on 1st he made 1.5-meter for a birdie and went on to making 3 straight birdies from 4th.
"I was able to keep most of the fairways, and my shots were stable. My iron shots got close to the pin, and I made most of the birdie chances. I would say, today's game was perfect, and this has definitely given me confidence."

Yuta finished his R1 bogey free with the score of 65 in the rainy condition and rose at the top of the leaderboard. Yuta says, he has been mistaken as "Ryosuke Kinoshita" for plenty of times, as Ryosuke has won 2 tournaments in a row and is now one of the big stars on the Tour.
"I played along with Ryosuke in Mizuno Open, and he has great shots. I wasn't surprised to see him win. But it is not too bad getting mistaken as a great player. I know that during the 4 rounds, I will hit a wall and do bad, but I want to be able to struggle through it and wait for my chance to resurface. I know how to struggle and be patient."