Brad Kennedy has vaulted into the top-10 of the Japan Tour money list with his third runner-up finish of the year

Kennedy, a two time winner since joining the Tour in 2011, finished one shot behind winner K.T Kim of Korea, the third time this season he has held at least a share of second place.

The Queenslander was outright second at the Kansai Golf Championship in May and shared second at the JGT Championship last month.

Kennedy opened with three brilliant rounds at this week’s Musee Platinum tournament, scores of 66-65-65 seeing him enter the final round in the last pairing two shots behind leader J.B Park.

However, Kennedy ran out of momentum on Sunday and despite shooting a creditable 2-under round of 69 was overtaken by the brilliance of Kim’s 65.

Kennedy is piecing together his best season yet in Japan with just one missed cut in nine starts and three top-25 finishes.

Also enjoying a good season is New Zealand’s Michael Hendry who also had a chance this week before fading in the final round.

After posting his maiden victory in the first tournament of the year Hendry has struggled for consistency but has played some brilliant golf.

He began the final round outright third but a disappointing 73 eventually led to a T10 finish.

While Hendry and Kennedy were enjoying good weeks so, too, was Japan Tour rookie Matt Griffin who posted his best result of the year with a T8.

Griffin has struggled to find his feet in Japan but showed he has what it takes to compete on that Tour with rounds of 69-64-68-68 to be 15-under for the week. It was Griffin’s first top-10 for the season.

Won Joon Lee (T25), Scott Strange and Adam Bland (T38) and Peter Wilson (T53) were the other Australians to make the cut.

Mathew Guyatt, David Smail, Steve Conran and Jordan Zunic all missed the cut while Brendan Jones withdrew after the first round.

Nice to have a top 10 up here in Japan and to get the year rolling! Game felt great all week to shoot 15 under!

— Matt Griffin (@MattGriffinGolf) July 12, 2015