Amateur Semikawa wins Panasonic Open, Kennedy T7

Brad Kennedy finished in a share of 7th position on Sunday at the Panasonic Open Golf Championship on the Japan Tour.

Kennedy finished at 16-under-par, six strokes short of the winner, Japan’s Taiga Semikawa who is still an amateur and whose world amateur ranking is expected to improve from 9th following Sunday’s win.

Japanese amateur Taiga Semikawa won the 2022 Panasonic Open (Credit: PGA Tour)

Semikawa joins Keita Nakajima in becoming the second successive amateur winner at the Panasonic Open.

The 21-year-old launched a late birdie blitz to fire a final round 66 to seal a one-shot victory over Aguri Iwasaki with a 22-under-par total.

“I didn’t know how to describe my feeling right now,” said Semikawa. “I’m overjoyed. I have never experienced anything like this before. It was frustrating to lose the Kansai Open in April where I really had a good shot at. I really never imagined that I could win a JGTO championship as a student.”

The 48-year-old Kennedy is hunting for his fourth Japan Tour title and marked his scorecard with five birdies, one bogey and one double bogey to post his fifth top-10 result of the season.

Kennedy is also the top Aussie on the Japan Tour money list at 16th with ¥30,879,850 (AUD$330,032) in earnings from 13 starts.

Anthony Quayle and Andrew Evans finished in a share of 26th position with Adam Bland in a share of 34th. Brendan Jones finished in outright 66th position.