Top 10 finishes for both Brad Kennedy and Adam Bland at this week’s HEIWA PGM CHAMPIONSHIP have set the pair up well for the Japan Tour’s richest run of golf over the next three weeks.
Top 10 finishes for both Brad Kennedy and Adam Bland at this week’s HEIWA PGM CHAMPIONSHIP have set the pair up well for the Japan Tour’s richest run of golf over the next three weeks.
Kennedy moved to 24th on the money list with a fifth place finish this week while Bland is just four places behind after a T7 result.
The pair have moved well clear of New Zealand’s Michael Hendry who was the leading Australasian money winner for much of the year.
Next week’s Visa Taiheiyo Masters is one of the most prestigious titles on the Japan Tour and will be followed by the Dunlop Phoenix and Casio World Open, all traditionally attracting some of the world’s top players.
Bland and Kennedy were the standout performers this week with Steve Conran (T17) the only other Australasian inside the top 20.
David Smail (T37), Kurt Barnes (T47) and Brendan Jones (T63) were the only others to make the cut with Jones particularly disappointed with his form.
The 13 time Japan Tour winner has his sights set on a big finish to the year having missed much of the season recovering from wrist surgery but never got going this week.
Having put a short putter into play for the first time as a Professional last week and finishing T6 Jones had been hopeful of a good week and while his putting stats were decent other parts of his game let him down.
He averaged just shy of 30 putts per round with only one three putt but 15 bogies for the week was always going to be too hard to recover from in a low scoring tournament.