Yamashita Shares First-Round Lead in Bid for Back-to-Back Wins

• Miyu Yamashita, Aki Iwai and Sayaka Takahashi share the Toto Japan Classic lead.
• Minami Hiruta, Pajaree Anannarukarn and Fuka Suga are one shot back.
• Defending champion Nasa Hataoka is among nine players two off the lead.

Miyu Yamashita arrived in Japan four days after becoming the first player to defend the Maybank Championship, and she picked up where she left off in Kuala Lumpur. Her bogey-free 6-under 66 on Thursday put her in a three-way tie for the first-round lead at the Toto Japan Classic, alongside compatriots Aki Iwai and Sayaka Takahashi.

The event, played over a 6,598-yard layout at Omitama, outside Tokyo, is the last of the four tournaments on the LPGA’s late-season Asian swing.

How did Yamashita go low?

Yamashita’s ball-striking was close to flawless. She hit 13 of 14 fairways and 17 of 18 greens in regulation and needed 29 putts. She already has three LPGA Tour wins this season, adding the Maybank to the Meijer LPGA Classic and a record-equalling nine-shot victory at the CPKC Women’s Open. She also won the Sony JLPGA Championship, a JLPGA major, in her only start on her old home tour this year.

This is her fifth appearance at the event, three of them as a JLPGA member, and she finished solo third here last year.

“Winning three tournament, it means confidence definitely, but I still have something I need to sort, so I just want to keep going with this condition,” said Yamashita.

Iwai’s putter does the work

Iwai got there a different way. She hit 12 of 14 fairways but only 12 greens, and made up for it with eight birdies and just 25 putts. She knows how to go low on this course: as a JLPGA member in 2023, she opened with a 63 to tie the tournament’s 18-hole record, and she holds the LPGA Tour scoring record at the venue.

She finished tied for 27th here last year. Her form this autumn is much stronger, though. In late September she closed with a 62 to share second place at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship.

Takahashi brings JLPGA form

Takahashi also went bogey-free. She has won twice on the JLPGA Tour this year, at the Yamaha Ladies Open Katsuragi and the KKT Cup Vantelin Ladies Open. Her trips abroad have been less productive: she missed the cut at the US Women’s Open, the Amundi Evian Championship and the AIG Women’s Open. She tied for sixth at this event last year.

The chasing pack

Minami Hiruta, Thailand’s Pajaree Anannarukarn and Fuka Suga shot 67 to sit one stroke back. Nine players are a further shot behind after 68s, among them defending champion Nasa Hataoka.

The Asian swing has been good to Japanese players so far. Yuri Yoshida won her first LPGA Tour title in Korea before Yamashita’s win in Malaysia, and after the opening round five of the top six players on the leaderboard here are Japanese.

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