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Shigeki Maruyama is the surprise leader at the Sony Open
Shigeki Maruyama's round of 65 on Thursday to take the first round lead at the Sony Open in Hawaii may of surprised a lot of folks and could change his mind on playing in America. Last year was a bit of a nightmare for him as in 18 starts he made only 9 cuts and earned only $160,175 (ranked 207th). His best start was his first in the Sony Open as he finished T25th and after withdrawing from the U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee he was pretty much finished with the PGA Tour. He went back home to Japan and had 8 starts, having three top-tens with his best finish coming at both the Bridgestone Open and the Dunlop Phoenix were he finished 3rd.
Maruyama turns 40 this year and has pretty much decided to devote himself to the Japan Golf Tour. This despite the fact that he has a home in Beverly Hills and his son Sean goes to school there makes things tough. Still for Maruyama last year was a terrible year not only physically but mentally and emotionally. He changed drivers and his swing and just wasn't able to cope. His mid-year exit from the PGA Tour and playing in Japan helped him recharge the batteries, get plenty of rest and help get his body in shape. As he said after his round: "The most difficult change was the physical part. I had to go back and really just start from scratch. I had some injury (shoulder and knee). The physical condition, the balance wasn't there, so I didn't go to the driving range when I went back in September to Japan. I stretched a lot, rested, got my body back in shape in order to work on some swing changes."
So now he has to make some decisions, he would love to play on the PGA Tour but the reality is that he has no tour card and has just two ways of getting into events, either through his past champion status or sponsor exemptions.
As he said after his round, life would be so much easier for him on the PGA Tour but in Japan he has found that smile that gave him the title "Smiling Assassin" On the PGA Tour he is just another struggling pro while in Japan he is a cult hero. As he told the media on Thursday about his future on the PGA Tour, "I'll get some sponsor exemptions hopefully along the line, and we'll see where that goes. For Maruyama Thursday was the first time that he has held the outright 18 hole lead but he did have a share of the lead three times, but none of them yielded a victory.
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