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Land of the rising stars Japanese pros making an impact on PGA Tour
Posted: Monday June 12, 2000 02:43 PM
Isao Aoki victory at the 1983 Hawaiian Open is still the only win by a Japanese player on the PGA Tour. However, Japanese pros are showing up more frequently on PGA Tour leaderboards. Kazuhiko Hosokawa's second place finish last week at the Kemper made him the 6th different Japanese player with a runner-up finish since Aoki's title. Earlier this year, Shigeki Maruyama tied for second at the Buick Invitational. Earlier this week, he shot an amazing 58 during U.S. Open qualifying. Meanwhile, Ryuji Imada last month became the first Japanese born player to win on the Buy.Com tour. Hot as HaleHale Irwin is hot. Just one victory shy of Lee Trevino's all-time senior career record of 28 wins, the 55-year-old Irwin now has 20 consecutive sub-par rounds to his credit dating back to the final round of the Countrywide Tradition. The Senior Tour record is 26 by Gil Morgan. Sister act
The Wongluekiet twins are each playing on sponsor's exemptions this week in
Rochester, but don't expect them to take advantage of the two others they are
each entitled to this season. The only remaining LPGA tour event the 14-year-
olds plan to play in this year is the U.S. Women's Open, and then only if they
make it through qualifying. Aree Wongluekliet recently turned down a sponsor's exemption to play at the Jamie Farr Kroger Classic in Toledo because tournament officials could not extend another to her sister, Naree. Pebble profileWant a sure winner for next week's U.S. Open at Pebble Beach? Consider this composite. The precisely positional driving of Colin Montgomerie, the creative and high spinning iron shots of Jesper Parnevik, Tiger Woods' ability to neutralize rough, the soft hands around the greens of Phil Mickelson, and the gentle putting stroke of Ernie Els. Winning score? My guess is that anyone under 4-under-par 280 will take home the trophy. Sports Illustrated senior writer Jaime Diaz covers the golf beat and appears regularly on CNN's "Sports Illustrated Golf Plus" show.
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