Kawamoto takes early advantage

Riki Kawamoto hit the front after an opening eight-under-par 64 saw him take a one-shot lead over Ryo Ishikawa after the first round of the Casio World Open Golf Tournament on Thursday.
 
The 24-year-old is chasing his first JGTO victory since 2022 and put himself in an encouraging position to return to the winner’s circle after trading nine birdies against a lone bogey at the Kochi Kuroshiro Country Club.

Ishikawa stayed in the hunt for his 21^st JGTO title with a flawless 65 while Philippines’ Juvic Pagunsan together with South Korea’s Song Yong-han and Lee Sang-hee were the three international players in a share of third place with Shota Yoshimoto, Yosuke Asaji and Hiroshi Iwata on matching 66s.
 
Starting on the back-nine 10, Kawamoto charged ahead with three birdies in his first four holes. He birdied 15 and 17 before adding another four birdies in his inward nine on holes one, three, five and seven. He dropped his only shot of the day on the par-three eight and closed out the day with a par on the ninth hole.
 
“I was playing nice golf all day and my putting was particularly good. I missed the cut last week and I want to bounce back and show I can play good golf this week. If I can maintain my consistency, it should be a good week,” said Kawamoto.
 
Ishikawa is also focused on keeping himself sharp as there are still 54 holes to be played in the penultimate event on the 2024 JGTO season.
 
“There’s still a lot of golf to be played and it’s important for me to keep my focus. My tee shots and iron play were solid today. Hopefully, I can continue to do more of the same in the next three days,” said Ishikawa.
 
Leading first round scores
All Japanese nationals unless indicated otherwise
 
64 – Riki Kawamoto
65 – Ryo Ishikawa
66 – Lee Sang-hee (KOR), Song Yong-han (KOR) Juvic Pagunsan (PHI), Shota Yoshimoto, Hiroshi Iwata, Yosuke Asaji
67 – Park Sang-hyun (KOR), Tomoyasu Sugiyama, Taisei Yamada, Taisei Shimizu, Shunya Takeyasu, Naoyuki Kataoka, Kota Kaneko, Masamichi Ito, Yusuke Sakamoto
 
Ends.