Taichi Teshima, 52 years old showed great chip-in eagle on Par 5 16th from the roughs right in front of Komei Oda.
"He showed such a magnificent technique."

Komei answered it back with 7-meter birdie with his new mallet type putter, which he suddenly chose to use just before the tournament began.
"My shots were good, so I wanted to brush up on my putting. I tried practicing with it yesterday and since then, my putting is going great."

Komei made another one on 17th and played bogey free round to score 67, 5 under at 4T after 1R.

Taichi Teshima has been known as "monster player" during his junior days in Kyushu area. Komei is also from Kyushu, and he met Taichi, who is 10 years elder than him at the golf range when he was 1st grader in elementary school.
"If I hadn't met with Taichi, I don't think I would have become a golfer."

Komei admires and worships Taichi, but that has grown larger last week as Taichi won the Senior Japan Open with 5 strokes lead. Taichi won the Japan Open in 2001. He has become the 4th player to win both Japan Opens in Regular and Senior Tours following Isao Aoki, Jumbo Ozaki, and Toru Taniguchi.
"Taichi is incredible. He will be my mentor as long as I live."

But that great player is known to be very friendly and very chatty.
"He is so relaxed and chatty on the course, even the atmosphere is tense. So, I get to relax too. Also, playing among the young players who over drives me easily makes my confidence decline, but when I play along with Taichi, we are about the same, so I feel not left out."

Komei was crowned as Order of Merit Champion back in 2014, but he has been away from winning for past 8 years.
"Both Taichi and I have won 8 times on Regular Tour. We both have to push ourselves again tomorrow and get another winning title under our belts."