In-form Kanaya takes pole position

Takumi Kanaya picked up where he left off last week by firing a 10-under-par 62 to seize the opening-round lead of the ASO Iizuka Challenge Golf Tournament in Fukuoka on Thursday.

Fresh off a wire-to-wire victory at the BMW Japan Golf Tour Championship Mori Building Cup, the 25-year-old recorded a whopping 11 birdies - six on the front nine and five on the back nine - to offset a lone bogey, leading by two shots from Mikiya Akutsu and Katsumasa Miyamoto at the Aso Iizuka Golf Club.

Kanaya launched his hunt for a fifth JGTO title with all guns blazing, opening with a birdie on the 10th hole of the back-nine. He then picked up further gains on holes 12, 13, 15, 16, and 18 to turn in 36.

Kanaya continued his red-hot streak on the inward-nine with a hat trick of birdies starting from the first hole.

He finally dropped his first shot of the day, two-putting for a bogey on the par-three fifth, but that hardly dampened his spirit.

He finished the day in style with two more birdies on holes seven and nine.

"My shots were in great condition, and my putting was also on point. Being able to hit the fairway gave me more opportunities, and that translated into a good score," said Kanaya, who hit 10 fairways throughout the day.

"I wasn't really thinking about the score. I was able to play well for the most part, and all I wanted was to get a lot of birdies.

"Eventually, I also dropped a bogey on the back nine, but I responded well to finish with two more birdies. I'm very pleased with that."

"I've been playing well for the past two weeks, so I hope to ride on the good confidence and look forward to another good result this week."

Leading for the fifth consecutive round, Kanaya will be aiming to maintain his position at the top as he seeks a career-first back-to-back victory.

The last player to achieve this feat was Shugo Imahira when he won the Asia Pacific Open Golf Championship Diamond Cup and Golf Partner Pro-Am Tournament.

Last week's joint runner-up, Song Young-han of South Korea, and 15-time JGTO winner Brendan Jones of Australia were the best-placed international players, tied for 16th after returning matching scores of 68.

Golf Partner Pro-Am Tournament winner Juvic Pagunsan of the Philippines, American Todd Baek, and Australia's Dylan Perry are one shot further back, tied for 29th.

Leading first round scores:

62: Takumi Kanaya;

64: Mikiya Akutsu, Katsumasa Miyamoto;

65: Yujiro Ohori, Ryosuke Kinoshita, Takahira Hataji;

66: Ryo Okamura, Taiga Semikawa, Taiga Sugihara;

67: Taichi Nabetani, Hideto Tanihara, Tomoyasu Sugiyama, Kosuke Sunagawa, Keita Nakajima, Kaigo Tamaki.