Yuto Katsuragawa continued a history-making season for Japanese players on the DP World Tour with a three-shot victory on home soil at the ISPS Handa Championship.
The local favourite entered the final day at Taiheiyo Club Gotemba Course three shots off the lead but was right in the mix at the turn as many of the leading players stumbled.
Sebastian Söderberg was the only one keeping pace with him but the 25-year-old started the back nine with five birdies in seven holes to leave the Swede in his wake and finish at 17 under after a course-record equalling 63.
Söderberg carded a 67 to be the nearest challenger on 14 under, while South Africa’s Christiaan Bezuidenhout ended third on 12 under after firing a 65.
But all the headlines belonged to Katsuragawa, who made it back-to-back Japanese wins in regular DP World Tour events for the first time after Keita Nakajima’s victory at the Hero Indian Open.
Isao Aoki was the first Japanese winner in DP World Tour history at the 1983 European Open but we had to wait 33 years for another when Hideki Matsuyama lifted the trophy at the 2016 WGC-HSBC Champions.
Matsuyama would lift another World Golf Championships title the following year before his monumental Masters victory in 2021 made it four all-time Japanese wins on the DP World Tour.
That tally has doubled in just seven months, with Ryo Hisatsune’s win at last season’s Cazoo Open de France being followed by Rikuya Hoshino’s 2024 victory at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters and Nakajima and Katsuragawa’s recent heroics.
Katsuragawa’s maiden DP World Tour win comes in just his fifth start and is his second in this event, having lifted the trophy in 2022 before it was co-sanctioned with the Japan Golf Tour Organisation.
He is now set to take up DP World Tour membership and will enter the top 25 on the Race to Dubai Rankings in Partnership with Rolex, with a long-term goal of achieving dual membership with the PGA Tour.
“I have been practising a lot to stand on the big stage,” he said. “I can now go on the DP World Tour which is really great and I’m really happy with it. I’m aiming to become a member of the PGA Tour in the future.”
He added: “I was very nervous on the back nine, my hands were shaking but I trusted myself and I managed to bring my golf.
“This course is beside Mount Fuji and very beautiful but it is a challenging course and I’m happy to win at a challenging course like this.”
– Edited report from DP World Tour
