Nakajima steals early limelight

Keita Nakajima birdied three of his last four holes to surge into an early one-shot lead in the opening round of the Mynavi ABC Championship in Hyogo on Thursday.

The 23-year-old, closely trailing Takumi Kanaya in a thrilling race for the JGTO prize money king title, putted superbly at the ABC Golf Club, accumulating an eagle and eight birdies, while offsetting a lone bogey, for a sparkling nine-under-par 63.

Tomohiro Kondo opened with a 64, ending the day one shot better than Ryo Katsumata, Taihei Sato and South Korea's Song Young-han, who finished as the highest-placed international competitor in the standings.

Defending champion Mikumu Horikawa is another further shot back, along with five others, including Juvic Pagunsan of the Philippines

Kanaya, who's playing in the same group as Nakajima, signed for a four-birdie 68 to sit in a group of 10 players sharing 15th place.

Nakajima entered this week's event hoping to make amends after squandering the chance to win the Japan Open a fortnight ago, where he settled for tied-11th despite sharing the lead at the halfway stage.

Starting from the 10th tee, Nakajima got off to the best possible start by birdieing his first hole of the day, but he would return to square one at the next.

However, that turned out to be the only blemish as he eagled the par-five 15th before gaining two successive birdies on the 16th and 17th.

On the back nine, he bagged five more birdies to claim the early lead

"I was quite pleased with how consistent I was from tee shots to putting. I had a good day. I swung my shots with confidence and my putting was spot on, so I think I can play golf with confidence now," said Nakajima.

Nakajima acknowledged that playing alongside Kanaya has brought out the best in both of them and generated positive energy.

"Kanaya-san had a bogey-free round today, and players like him are the most formidable. He's been maintaining a high level of play, so I anticipate that we'll continue to build on our performance starting tomorrow," said Nakajima.

Kanaya, who was trailing Nakajima by five shots, expressed frustration with his cold putter and has vowed to go low to reduce the deficit with the leader.

"I have to keep improving because I can't win without doing that, so I'll do my best," said Kanaya.

"It would have been great if my putting had been better, but, it can't be helped. There are three more days to go, so I'll do my best to improve my score.

"I'll do my best to get as many birdies as possible."

Leading first round scores:

63: Keita Nakajima;

64: Tomohiro Kondo;

65: Ryo Katsumata, Song Young-han (Kor), Taihei Sato;

66: Yosuke Tsukada, Taiga Nagano, Kazuki Yasumori;

67: Akio Sadakata, Naoyuki Kataoka, Hideto Tanihara, Mikumu Horikawa, Yusaku Hosono, Juvic Pagunsan (Phi).