Yosuke Tsukada (-13) achieved the most important victory of his career this Sunday by winning the Dunlop Phoenix Tournament, a tournament on the Japan Tour with a long-standing tradition that annually invites players from the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour. This time, the delegation was led by Nick Dunlap and Neal Shipley from the American circuit and Alex del Rey from the European circuit. Additionally, the most prominent figure was Hideki Matsuyama. In short, it is not just another tournament on the Japanese calendar.
Therefore, Tsukada’s triumph, at 40 years old, is even more significant. Until today, he had only been able to win once, back in 2016. Also during that period, nine years ago, he reached his best world ranking (291), but since then he has hovered more around the thousandth in the world than the 500th. It has been his big week. His Sunday of glory.
The final round was not exactly a walk in the park. He started with a bogey on the 1st hole and within an hour of play, he had already lost the lead to Mikumu Horikawa. Far from getting nervous, this veteran Japanese played with sensational composure. He made a birdie on the 6th to calm his nerves and sealed his victory with good recoveries and two key birdies on the 13th and 14th holes. He finished with a birdie on the 18th after a fantastic shot that left the ball less than a finger’s width from the hole. It was his week. It was his day.
Tsukada’s great Sunday, who one day decided to change the way he wrote his name to make it easier for children to read (he said they didn’t approach him because they were afraid of mispronouncing his name), contrasted with the stumbles of his two companions in the star match. Korean Sang Hee Lee and American Neal Shipley each shot 74 and finished outside the top 10 with a total of -4. This also somewhat helped Tsukada, although until his two birdies on the 13th and 14th holes, his outlook was not clear. Shipley, in fact, was in the fight until those last holes. His round seemed worse due to the end, stumbling with a bogey on the 15th and a double bogey on the 18th.
Even Matsuyama had chances of victory coming from behind. He managed to reach -7 and was at one point just two strokes from the lead, but things didn’t quite work out for him on the greens. Indeed, the great Japanese star lacked birdies this week.
A glorious Sunday for Tsukada and for Alex del Rey (+1). The Madrid native left his mark on the final day of the tournament. He delivered a round of 65 strokes, the best of the day tied with Shugo Imahira, and the second-best of the tournament, only surpassed by the 64 signed on Thursday by Koshiro Maeda. The Madrid native played this tournament because he is in love with Japan and does not rule out returning in the coming years. The experience has been fantastic. He started the round spectacularly, with four birdies in his first five holes, from the 10th to the 14th. Then, he continued with two more birdies on the 1st and 2nd and managed to reach six under, matching the best result of the week on this tough course at the Phoenix Country Club. A bogey on the 6th left him with that magnificent final result of 65 strokes. He climbed a total of 30 positions in a single day to finish 31st.
Tsukada finally won comfortably, with a five-stroke margin over the big hitter Riki Kawamoto (-8), the leader of the Japanese order of merit Tatsunori Shogenji (-8), and Mikumu Horikawa (-8).
