Within 3 hours of landing in Tokyo on a 16 hour flight from Las Vegas, Tatsuro who you frequently see testing clubs in videos on the blog here, was teeing off with me at Hirakwa Country Club. Although jet lagged and tired from the long flight, he was happy to get in a round with my neighbor Hayashi-san and I before the Japan Tour Qualifying Tournament begins next week. The JGTO qualifying rounds are the Japan equivalent of the PGA Tour’s Q school.
The weather was hot and humid after a night of heavy rain and the greens were on the heavy side with much less run in the fairways which were very very soft today. It rained on us several times during the round as well which actually helped us cool down. During the first 9 holes Tatsuro who was playing from the Black/Champions tees, while we played the regular tees, Tatsuro was once again getting used to playing in Japan where the courses differ quite a bit from the ones in Vegas (and waking up after the long flight). The soft lush fairways and heavily tree lined holes are a bug change from more wide open, firmer fairways and greens of Vegas.
Even though on some holes, the Champions tee plays 50-60 or more yards behind the regular tee, Tatsuro was consistently outdriving both Hayashi-san and I with very penetrating and straight drives from his J-Beam 425 Tour – Bangvoo 787 combo. And as you can see in the above picture, standing next to me Tats is not a big guy (I am 5’4″ at best). He has nice compact and explosive swing which makes great contact no matter what the club or lie. I guess that is the difference between a near pro player and an average golfer. Playing the course for the first time and with 7100y in length (Hirakawa is a Championship course home to the Fujifilm JPGA Senior Open), Tats finished with a 74 which I thought was pretty darn good considering he just got off the plane coming from the other side of the world. We certainly wish him luck next week and hope to play again soon!
Took some snaps as well of his swing which I could only dream of having (keep in mind I did not catch his finish as the camera only does 30 successive shots and ran out before he finished his swing).
