Augusta, Georgia, United States: Australian Jason Day, Korean Im Sung-jae and Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama will spearhead the Asia-Pacific challenge over the weekend at Augusta National.
On a day that saw Singaporean amateur Hiroshi Tai miss the cut, Day, Im and Matsuyama kept alive the region’s hopes of glory at the 89th edition of the Masters Tournament.
Heading into Saturday’s third round, Day is tied for ninth on four-under 140 after posting a second successive 70. He trails pace-setting Englishman Justin Rose by four strokes.
Among those in joint 12th on 141 are Im and Matsuyama, the 2021 winner here.
The only other Asia-Pacific players to survive the half-way cut were Australian Min Woo Lee (tied 22nd, 143) and Koreans An Byeong-hun (tied 37th, 145) and Tom Kim (tied 40th, 146).
After an opening 73, Georgia Tech junior Tai had hoped to mark his Masters debut by playing all four rounds. However, a second-round 77 meant he missed out by four shots.
Of the five amateurs in the field, none of whom made the cut, he had the second-best score, behind only Justin Hastings of the Cayman Islands.
Reflecting on his performance, Tai told the Straits Times: “I had a lot of fun. I learnt a lot.
“The last few days have been really cool, just to be able to play with a bunch of really good players and learn a lot from them.
“Mentally, I think I did a good job. Good enough to play out there. And I guess try and enjoy myself as much as I can even when the scores are not as good as you want.
“You learn how to play a tough course like this. You learn how much it’s important to put yourself in good spots. Especially par-fives.”
Despite failing to qualify for the weekend, Tai did have the satisfaction of finishing in front of Spaniard Jose Luis Ballester, the reigning US Amateur champion.
In January’s Bonallack Trophy in the United Arab Emirates, Tai was beaten by Ballester all three times they played against each other, once in foursomes, once in fourballs and also a 5&4 loss in the singles.
Nonetheless, it was Tai who had the last laugh with his Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation team defeating Ballester’s European Golf Association line-up in the Ryder Cup-style clash.
