Rahil Gangjee (Ind)

I’m loving this place. It has been a year and it’s awesome! But it has been intense especially with me trying to learn how to play on each golf course here. Every golf course is in perfect condition and they have been a good challenge. I have a few issues with trying to remember holes because you play on so many new golf courses and you tend to forget a few holes. Hopefully, it gets better this year as I’ve played an entire year in Japan already. It can get a little demoralising when you know you should be doing better and playing to your full potential. But I have gone through those phases before and I knew the kind of emotional turmoil that I will be going through. It was tough but I took it as a challenge. I worked with my mental coach on what’s happening and why it’s happening. I’ve also worked a lot on my technique. And my game has now changed.

Adilson Da Silva (Bra)

I’m happy I played well last week. I hit the ball well, drove it well and I did not miss many fairways last week. My putting was really good too. I’m happy so coming into this week, I have high expectations. I feel that this golf course suits my game as it’s fairly narrow. I really like Japan and I’m considering whether to try for the Qualifying School now. Winning in Taiwan last year made me see things differently. It just provides you with a brand new perspective. You feel like you can win in any tournament you play in.

Zach Murray (Aus)

I’m really excited as my game is in good shape. I missed a couple of shots last week in China but overall, I’m still feeling very confident about my game. I have a lot of different experiences since Qualifying School. Of course, winning in New Zealand was amazing and it has been a bit of a whirlwind. I sort of calmed down now and I’m settling in things. I want to continue putting in more good performances and try to get as high as I can on the Order of Merit. I’m enjoying my time in Asia but I’m also hoping to see if I can play more in Europe as too.

Prayad Marksaeng (Tha)

I like playing in the Asia-Pacific Diamond Cup because I got a good track record at this event. I won this event in 2008 although it was not on this golf course. But it’s still feels good to play in an event which you know you’ve won before. I’ve been playing in Japan for almost 25 years already and I’m very familiar with the golf courses here. I’m still young but it great to see the even younger boys from Thailand doing well. They just need to continue to gain more experience, playing in big events like this to gain more exposure and get used to the various playing conditions.

Ben Campbell (Nzl)
When I was an amateur, I played a few events in Japan including this one and I really enjoyed my time here. The courses are always in amazing conditions and I always love coming back. It’s awesome to see events like this giving opportunities to amateurs because as an amateur, you want to come out and test yourself against the pros. You want to be able to benchmark yourself against the pros. It has been good playing on the Asian Tour. I played well enough last year to keep my card and I was off to a good start this season. It’s a great Tour and it’s not a massive distance away from home. It’s nice to be able to spend some time at home too.

Shinichi Mizuno (Jpn)
The last time I played on the Japan Tour was when I was 17. So it has been a really long time and I’m just excited and happy to be back. I don’t really come back to Japan as often as I would like to. I only come back whenever I play in tournaments or the beginning and end of the year to see my grandparents. It has been a steep learning curve and I haven’t been able to post a good result since that breakthrough on the ADT in Malaysia last year. But I got a good feeling that my game is coming back and I need to be more confident of myself. If I can do that, I should be able to do well. I haven’t made any cuts on the Asian Tour yet and hopefully, I can do that this week.

Ends.