ASUKA FROM JAPAN ONLY SECOND GIRL TO WIN R AND A JUNIOR OPEN

By COLIN FARQUHARSON Colin@scottishgolfview

Asuka Kashiwabara, a 16-year-old from Miyazaki, Japan, scored an impressive record-breaking  win today in the 10th R and A Junior Open golf championship at Fairhaven Golf Club, Lytham St Annes.

Asuka is only the second girl ever to beat the boys and win the tournament and her astonishing winning margin of 14 strokes at the end of 54 holes is also a record for the tournament contested by boys and girls, under the age of 16 on January 1, from around the world. The only other girl to win the presitgious tournament was 13-year-old Moriya Jutanugarn from Thailand at Hesketh in 2008.
Another record achieved by Asuka over the three days at Fairhaven was an eight-under-par 66 new low figure for the ladies' course at the Lytham St Anne's venue.

A total of 68 nations made up the field at this year's event - and Asuka outclassed them all with scoring that would have done credit to a professional, let alone a one-handicapp girl!

Asuka followed her first-round 66 (eight under par) with two more sub-par rounds of 69 and 71 for grand total, a really grand total, of 16 under par 206.

Speaking through an interpreter, Miss Kashiwabara, making her first visit to Europe, said she had enjoyed

the course, the tournament and she did not mind the weather.

She tried not to think about the rain which marred the first two days of the event and caused a suspension of play on Tuesday, which meant the second round did not finish until this morning.

This also meant that instead of the leading 80 and ties after 36 holes qualifying for the final round, there was time only for the leading 33 players to contest the final 18 holes.

In her winner's speach, written in English for her by a Japanese Golf Association committee member, Asuka, speaking in English, jokingly told the boys that they must practise harder.

The secret of her success was undoubtedly her game plan to keep her driver in her bag and stay out of the long and wet rough by using a three-wood off the tee.
DRIVER COST HER DOUBLES

She played the first 36 holes bogey free .... but used a driver twice in her final round and it cost her the only two bogeys she had this week.

Over the three rounds, Asuka had one eagle, 16 birdies and two bogeys.
She is still at high school in Miyazaki, near the southern tip of Japan and not all that far away from two much better known cities, at least by the western world, Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
Her plan is to turn professional when she is 18 and play on Japan's flourishing lady pro tour which has already produced LPGA stars such as Ai Miyazato.
The only baffling aspect of Asuka Kashiwabara is that she has a handicap of one - past tense, she HAD a handicap of one because her phenomenal scores at Fairhaven should see her come down to scratch if not +1 or +2.
Apparently, she has never one anything of note in Japan but is obviously highly regarded back home or the Japanese Golf Association would not have sent her to play in the R and A Junior Open.
But what transformed from a one-handicapper nobody had heard of in Europe - this was her first visit - to a name that will make the golf magazines around the world.
Remember the name. Nobody who can score 16 under par for 54 holes over a course where rain has made the rough penal, could be written off as a flash in the pan performer.

Runner-up, beaten by 14 shots, was Italy's Renato Paratore from Rome with scores of 75, 72 and 73 for two-under-par 220.
GABRIELLA'S DOUBLE BOGEYS

Third was England's Gabriella Cowley of the West Essex club.

Gabriella started the day in second place but had double bogeys at three holes in succession - the third, fourth and fifth in reaching the turn in six-over 42.

She came back in two-under 36 with birdies at the 10th, 11th and 18th, set against bogey at the 14th, for a round of four-over 78.

Her earlier scores were 74 and 72.

"I'm disappointed with my last round and those double bogeys but I played better over the last nine holes," said Gabriella who is the Scottish Under-16 girls open champion and also holder of the English Under-15s title.

"But, overall, I enjoyed the tournament very much. It was a great experience."
Ireland's Marc Boucher, in contention after an opening round of 73, drifted out of the picture for the main prize with subsequent scores of 80 and 81 for 234 but the past winner of the Scottish Under-15 boys title won the Southern European Trophy, one of seven regional categories. Nobody can win two prizes so overall runner-up Renato Paratore from Italy was discounted from the Southern European Trophy.

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