Miyamoto heads to the top

Veteran Katsumasa Miyamoto overturned a two-shot deficit into a one-shot lead after the third round of the Japan Players Championship by Sato Shokuhin to put himself on the brink of his first JGTO victory in three years.

The 49-year-old took over the pole position after marking his scorecard with an eagle, six birdies and a double bogey for a six-under-par 66 at the Nishi Nasuno Country Club on Saturday.

The splendid effort took Miyamoto to 17-under through 54 holes, putting him one stroke ahead of Yuki Inamori (66) and halfway stage leader Taihei Sato (69), while Kaito Onishi was a further shot back after firing a sublime 63.

Yuto Katsuragawa, currently second on the Money Rankings, Ryo Hisatsune and Ren Kurosaki are tied in fifth place on 203s.

Miyamoto began the day superbly by rolling in two birdies on holes two and three, but his good work was quickly undone after double bogeying the par-five fourth hole.

However, Miyamoto showed just why he is still a respectable force at his age when he responded with an eagle on the par-four fifth before gaining two more shots on holes six and eight to make the turn in 32.

Miyamoto birdied two more times at the 10th and 16th holes on his return journey to seize the outright lead from Sato, who paid the price for dropping three shots in the closing stretch from holes 14 and 16.

A victory on Sunday would be his 13th on Tour and his first since The Crowns 2019.

"I've been able to play nicely over the last three days, so the onus is on me to replicate the same kind of performance tomorrow too," said Miyamoto.

He hopes to keep a level head in the final round as he aims to join Yoshitaka Yamamoto in 22nd place on the JGTO's all-time list of players with the most wins on Tour.

"But this course can produce big scores, so I think everyone will aim to go as low as possible tomorrow.

"I want to do it too tomorrow and definitely will keep my eyes closely on the scoreboard."