Through two rounds of the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP the leading Japanese player is not defending champion and eight-time PGA TOUR winner Hideki Matsuyama, instead it is rising star Keita Nakajima. Rounds of 70-63 have the former world no.1 amateur at 7-under par and inside the top 5 in his first PGA TOUR start as a professional, just three shots off the lead. Here are five things to know about the local favorite. 1. Nakajima played in five PGA TOUR events last season, including three majors, as an amateur. He booked a ticket to the Masters and The Open Championship at St. Andrews via victory in the Asia Pacific Amateur Championship and also had an exemption into the U.S. Open thanks to taking out the Mark H. McCormack Medal as the No.1 men’s amateur in 2021. While he was unable to make the cut in the major championships, he was T28 a year ago at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP and also had a decent week at the Sony Open in Hawaii to finish 41st. Nakajima only recently turned professional after a total of 87 weeks as the world’s best amateur. He finished T48 at the 2022 Panasonic Open in his first start as a professional and followed that with a T26 at the 2022 Vantelin Tokai Classic. 2. Nakajima already has a victory on the Japan Golf Tour, winning the Panasonic Open in 2021. He used his title defense as his first pro start. While Hideki Matsuyama is a hero to the young star, he credits his friend Takumi Kanaya as a huge factor in his success having been part of the Japan National Team system under Australian coach Gareth Jones together. “I became his teammate when I joined the national team and was able to learn from and follow in his footsteps by being awarded the McCormack Medal and winning the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship,” Nakajima said. “I respect him very much. I grew up watching Takumi and he did the same following in the steps of Hideki. I feel it’s my responsibility to leave a positive impression on the players that will come after I leave.” 3. While Matsuyama is his Japanese golf idol, Tiger Woods helped cement golf as Nakajima’s passion. “My family all play golf and I started playing when I was around 6 years old. Whenever I would watch the PGA TOUR on TV, I’d always see Tiger Woods playing and since then, probably around the time I was in junior high school, I have always wanted to become a professional golfer,” he told PGATOUR.com “The first player I ever remember seeing on TV was Tiger Woods. I don’t really remember any particular shots, I just remember his huge fist pumps every time he wins, which I always thought was really cool. “Tiger is definitely a clutch player so I would like to become more like him. I was also very impressed by Collin Morikawa’s winner’s speech at The Open (in 2021). I hope to one day become a player that can deliver a speech like that.” 4. His dream is to join Matsuyama on the PGA TOUR full-time. “He’s a superstar in Japan. I want to catch up to Hideki,” Nakajima said during the Sony Open last season. “I can only imagine all sorts of pressure he must feel to being the first Japanese to accomplish anything. To have that weight on his shoulders and still overcome that to accomplish a feat like winning the Masters is really cool. “My main goal is to successfully play on the PGA TOUR. I hope to continue to improve my game and get it to a level to where I can compete on the PGA TOUR. I’ll keep competing in as many JGTO events as I can, but if a chance to go to the U.S. and play should come up, whether that’s on the PGA TOUR or Korn Ferry Tour, I definitely would love to go over there and start my career.” 5. He has been compared to Dustin Johnson. “I have never really seen someone swing like me and I haven’t tried to make my swing like somebody else’s, but in a recent Golf Digest (Japan) article, they compared my impact position to being very similar to Dustin Johnson,” Nakajima said. “I definitely don’t hit it as far as Dustin, but I am working on hitting it farther.” Nakajima uses a TaylorMade setup on the course. Check out his full bag here.
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