OKINAWA (Japan), Dec 22: Japan’s Hiroyuki Fujita won the Okinawa Open Sunday by three strokes from American Ted Purdy and young amateur star Yusaku Miyazato at Southern Links Golf Club.
Fujita fired a third-round five-under-par 67 in the 833,000-dollar event, which was shortened to 54-holes because of bad weather.
He finished with a three-round aggregate of 14-under-par 202, in what is the first joint-sanctioned event between the Asian PGA Tour and Japan Golf Tour Organisation.
Purdy, who along with Fujita and three others started the third round sharing the lead, returned a 70 while Miyazato, currently in his senior year at university, closed with a 67.
In-form Fujita never looked back after birdieing the first three holes and when Purdy four-putted the 10th for a double-bogey six the Japanese golfer cruised home for his third Tour victory.
After the disappointment on 10 Purdy responded with three birdies on the way home but it was not enough to catch Fujita. On the 10th he pushed his first putt, from 30 feet, three feet past the cup and then knocked the next one five feet by.
Miyazato, who is aged 22, put in a brilliant back nine to join Purdy in second place. The rising star of Japanese golf birdied 13, chipped in for eagle on the par-five 14th and birdied 16.
With the tournament being reduced to 54 holes the prize money was lowered by 75 per cent. Fujita earned 15,000,000 yen, (about 124,400 dollars), while Purdy won 7,500,000 yen (62,200 dollars).
Final round scores (A denotes amateur):
202 - Hiroyuki Fujita (Jpn) 67-68-67
205 - Yusaku Miyazato (A) (Jpn) 68-70-67, Ted Purdy (USA) 65-70-70
208 - Tomohiro Kondo (Jpn) 66-69-73, Tetsuji Hiratsuka (Jpn) 68-67-73
209 - Taichi Teshima (Jpn) 69-71-69, James Oh (Kor) 70-67-72
210 - Masashi Ozaki (Jpn) 68-68-74
211 - Hideki Kase (Jpn) 69-72-70, Akinori Tani (Jpn) 72-68-71, Toru Suzuki (Jpn) 70-69-72, Daisuke Maruyama (Jpn) 69-70-72, Unho Park (Aus) 69-67-75, Dinesh Chand (Fij) 70-66-75, Nozomi Kawahara (Jpn) 71-71-69
212 - Kenichi Kuboya (Jpn) 70-70-72, Chawalit Plaphol (Tha) 71-70-71, Katsumune Imai (Jpn) 71-69-72, Kang Wook-Soon (Kor) 72-68-72, Taimur Hussain (Pak) 71-69-72, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 70-71-71, Katsuya Nakagawa (Jpn) 71-66-75
213 - Shigemasa Higaki (Jpn) 72-69-72, Paul Sheehan (Aus) 71-70-72, Zhang Lian-Wei (Chn) 69-72-72, Steve Jurgensen (USA) 71-67-75, Takenori Hiraishi (Jpn) 69-73-71, Nobumitsu Yuhara (Jpn) 72-70-71, Greg Hanrahan (USA) 67-70-76, Amandeep Johl (Ind) 71-71-71.—AFP