TOKYO: Japan's Yuta Ikeda won the Panasonic Open by three strokes Sunday after shooting a brilliant six-under-par 65 in the final round.
The 30-year-old made the turn in just 29 and closed with his sixth birdie of the day to capture his 15th career title with a winning total of 13-under 271 at the $1.25 million event sanctioned by the Japanese and Asian tours.
Asian Tour money leader Marcus Fraser finished in a tie for second with South Korean K.T. Kim after both fired rounds of 68.
Local favourite Ikeda, born a stone's thrown from the Chiba Country Club, southeast of Tokyo, began the day two behind overnight leader Shiv Kapur of India.
But a flurry of birdies and an eagle on the par-five second swept him to the top of the leaderboard in the spring sunshine.
Kapur, who was looking to end an 11-year title drought on the Asian Tour, fell away following a costly double-bogey on the fifth hole and the Delhi golfer finished with a 72 for an eight-under 276 total.
"It's nice to win my first title since turning 30 (last December)," Ikeda told reporters after pocketing a cool $270,000.
"I played a great front nine and that momentum carried me through. The early birdies put pressure on the rest of the guys."
Leading scores:
271 - Yuta IKEDA (JPN) 67-73-66-65
274 - K.T. KIM (KOR) 69-69-68-68, Marcus FRASER (AUS) 71-68-67-68
275 - Shugo IMAHIRA (JPN) 69-71-69-66
276 - Kodai ICHIHARA (JPN) 69-65-71-71, Shiv KAPUR (IND) 68-67-69-72
277 - Thanyakon KHRONGPHA (THA) 72-68-66-71
278 - Jeunghun WANG (KOR) 71-68-69-70
279 - LU Wei-chih (TPE) 72-68-71-68, Shingo KATAYAMA (JPN) 72-72-67-68, Ryutaro NAGANO (JPN) 65-73-71-70, Toshinori MUTO (JPN) 71-67-70-71, HUNG Chien-yao (TPE) 70-67-69-73
280 - Yoshinori FUJIMOTO (JPN) 72-71-69-68, Kazuki HIGA (am, JPN) 71-70-70-69, Atomu SHIGENAGA (JPN) 70-71-70-69, Azuma YANO (JPN) 67-69-74-70, Kiyoshi MIYAZATO (JPN) 70-70-70-70, Shintaro KOBAYASHI (JPN) 72-71-66-71
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