Danny struggling to find his footing in Japan Golf Tour
PETALING JAYA: Veteran Danny Chia admits his new journey in the Japan Golf Tour (JGT) has been tough as he seeks improvement in the Panasonic Open Golf Championship which begins at the Ibaraki Country Club today.
The 45-year-old, who moved to Japan three weeks ago, competed in the Token Homemate Cup in Nagoya last week but missed the cut after posting a poor score of 75 and 77.
Danny is playing in the JGT this season as a member after securing his Tour card through the JGT Qualifying School in December.
The two-time Asian Tour champion has now missed the cut in all his first three JGT appearances this year, having also failed to impress in the Singapore Open and Myanmar Open in January. The two meets are jointly sanctioned by the Asian Tour.
Ahead of his fifth appearance in the Panasonic Open, Danny said: “I’ll be focusing on my time in Japan, at least until June. I want to test myself here and see where I stand before the re-rankings on JGT.
“I played my first event last week and missed the cut.
“I thought I would have played enough golf in Japan to know what to do here but in reality, there are still so many things for me to learn here.
“It’s a different ball game over here and it’s still a learning process for me. Every golf course is new to me.
“For example, I had no idea where the wind was coming from when I played last week.”
It remains to be seen whether Danny has a change of fortune this week at the Ibaraki Country Club, which has not been too kind to him having missed the cut there four times.
Danny, however, did finish a creditable tied 20th in 2011 and he aims to repeat it.
“I’m more familiar with this golf course and I hope to do better,” he vowed.
“I didn’t hit the ball too badly but I just couldn’t score. It has not been a good start for me this year and I think it’s because I’m still trying to experiment with my techniques.
“I’ve put a stop to it and have told myself to stick to what I’ve been doing in the past. I have not really been scoring but I managed to hit the ball a lot better now.”
Besides Danny, the other two Malaysians in the 144-man field are Nicholas Fung and Ben Leong.
Gavin Kyle Green, the reigning Asian Tour No. 1, is skipping this week’s event to play in the European Tour’s Trophee Hassan II in Morocco.
Home duo Yuta Ikeda and Ryo Ishikawa will be among the top contenders alongside India’s Shiv Kapur and S.S.P Chawrasia, and Australia’s Scott Hend in the 150mil yen (RM5.44mil) tournament.