On June 18, 2000, a gentleman named Tiger Woods starred in one of the greatest feats in the history of the Majors. It happened at Pebble Beach. That day he handed in a card of 67 strokes to win the US Open with a fifteen-stroke lead over second place. It still stands today as the largest difference of all time in the Majors. Just six days after that, in the city of Saitama, a place of glorious memory for Spanish basketball, Keita Nakajima (-17) was born, winner this Sunday of the Hero Indian Open with a four-stroke margin.
Obviously, the US Open has nothing to do with the European Tour tournament in India and, much less, it is about establishing a comparison between the genius of Cypress and the young Japanese. Nakajima is not the new Tiger Woods, at least for now, but we are facing the last samurai, a special player, with a star, marked with the currency of the great champions and moulded to win Majors and fight for the Number One in the world. This is his rabid present. Of the future, there will be time to talk. He will confirm the forecasts, he will get lost in the heat of the fierce competition or he will stay halfway. Whatever it is, he is one of the most exciting projects in world golf these days.
The what is very important. Nakajima has won in his seventh regular tournament on the DP World Tour. Very soon. Faster, for example, than his first victories in Japan. As an amateur he won on his 22nd attempt on the Japan Tour (Panasonic Open 2021) and as a professional he did it on his 14th outing (Aso Iizuka Challenged Golf Tournament 2023). Conclusion: he keeps growing, every day he is better.
However, the how also teaches a lot about a player and Nakajima has imposed himself this Sunday in India with overwhelming authority. More than even his final advantage indicates. It was the first time he came out as a leader on the last day of a DP World Tour tournament and he dominated the situation from start to finish. As if he had been doing it all his life. And under very complicated conditions, with the strongest wind of the whole week. It was a very tense Sunday, although watching the Japanese it didn’t seem like it.
Nakajima laid the foundations for his resounding victory at the beginning. He put in a great birdie putt on the 1st, with that way of putting ‘wrap it up, I’m taking it home’. He got another easy birdie on the 4th and put the finishing touch to the tournament with a fabulous birdie on the 6th hole, after missing the fairway on the left, flirting with the water, pulling a sublime shot out of the rough and sinking a stratospheric birdie putt of more than ten metres.
In any normal tournament the victory would have already been settled. Nakajima had an eight-stroke lead with nine holes to go. However, in India, on this diabolical DLF Golf & CC, where double, triple and even quadruple bogeys lurk around every corner, it’s best to wait… The Japanese, despite his extraordinary dominance, also had his moment of certain tension. It came with a double bogey on the 14th, while Sebastian Soderberg (-13), who would have won if it weren’t for Nakajima, was charging from behind to add some excitement. The distance was reduced to five strokes, not anguishing, but unsettling in a scenario like the DLF.
Finally, Soderberg ended his charge with a bad second shot on the 18th hole, which cost him a bogey, and Nakajima ended any kind of unease with a birdie on the 15th (another spectacular putt). The final bogeys on the 16th, 17th and 18th only served to define the final result.
Nakajima has not won with a fifteen-stroke lead, nor has he come close. He is not Tiger, nor is he close for now. But he has something special, he already has five victories (four on the Japan Tour), he provisionally moves up to 80th in the world ranking, his best classification, he secures his presence in the PGA Championship, the last Major he had left to play, and he embodies the exciting moment of Japanese golf, with Hideki Matusyama, Takumi Kanaya, Ryo Hisatsune or Taiga Semikawa as main references.
As for the Spaniards, Adrián Otaegui (-5) had a good Sunday with a round of 69 strokes, to finish in 26th place. The Donostiarra has managed to pull out a good haul of points. Quite the opposite of Ángel Hidalgo (+9), who said goodbye with one of those days in the office to forget.
