Rikuya

Hoshino

Rose, 41, arrived off a T69 (of 72) at last week’s Scottish Open and was scheduled in Game 10 at 8:14 am local with 2018 champion Francesco Molinari (Carnoustie) and countryman Tommy Fleetwood. It was to be his 20th appearance in the championship with a best of T2, two shy to Molinari in 2018, and had finished T46 last year at Royal St. George’s for his seventh straight made cut in the event. The Englishman’s WD as the World No. 50 drops the field to 48 of the Top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking, while his fill-in Hoshino (World No. 70) will be making his seventh overall major appearance and second at The Open after a missed cut by five last year on 6-over 146 (74-72) as then-World No. 81. Hoshino’s best PGA TOUR finish in 12 events is a T26 at the 121st U.S. Open (Torrey Pines) in 2021 on 3-over 287 (69-74-73-71). Daniel Berger (No. 26) is the other player from the OWGR Top 50 that is not in the field this week at St Andrews, removing his name last Friday as he continues to navigate a sacroiliac joint sprain from February.

The 25-year-old from Ibaraki, Japan, has won twice on the JGT in 2021 to record three wins during the combined 2020-21 season. He won the Kansai Open in April and the Asia-Pacific Diamond Cup in May, beating Philippines’ Juvic Pagunsan by four strokes. He now has wins in four straight years on the JGT. He played in three majors this past season, finishing T-26 in the U.S. Open and missing the cut at the PGA Championship and The Open. At the Tokyo Olympics, Hoshino was given the honor of hitting the first tee shot in the Olympic Golf Tournament and finished T-38. After the Games, he’s posted top-30 finishes in all seven of his starts entering the Zozo Championship, including three top 10s. In two previous appearances, Hoshino was T-51 in 2019 at Narashino CC and T-72 last year when the event was held at Sherwood Country Club in California due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Japan Tour money leader (including majors) comes into the Olympics with plenty of good form. With his countryman by his side, Hoshino spoke to the media on Tuesday. When asked about how special the Olympics are, Hoshino said, “The Olympics is a stage that I’ve dreamed about since I was little growing up. And since the last edition of the Olympics, golf has been added and since then I’ve been wanting to participate in the Olympics. And once it was determined that the Olympics was going to be held in Tokyo, I really wanted to participate and I’m finally happy to be able to join the Tokyo Olympics here at my home country.” In regards to holding the distinct honor of hitting the first-shot of the tournament, Hoshino added, “The fairway of the first tee is very narrow, so I’m definitely going to be nervous about that, but I want to really focus on trying to hit the fairway and have a good start.”

Hoshino played his way into this field through his strong play on the Japan Golf Tour. He is 9th on the money list and 1st in Mercedez-Benz Total Points Rankings which is an all-around stat used by the Japan Golf Tour. His comfort on this style of golf course appears to be paying off early in the week. The 23-year-old split just five (of 13) fairways but kept himself in good enough position to still plaster 13 greens in regulation. His scorecard was busy as he traded five birdies with three bogeys on the day. Only four golfers recorded more birdies on day one. Hoshino entered with top 25s in four of his last five starts and the step-up in field strength is not concerning him one bit. At least not yet.

The 22-year-old from Japan is playing in his second career PGA TOUR event. He missed the cut at last year’s U.S. Open. The youngster split just eight (of 14) fairways but he landed 17 greens in regulation, good for best in the field in that regard. The highlight of his round came early in the day when he splashed home a 47'4" birdie bomb at the par-4 second hole. Hoshino entered with top 20s in five of his last six Japan Golf Tour starts and he’s riding that wave of form here on Oahu.