{"id":2091,"date":"2025-12-14T20:33:27","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T20:33:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=2091"},"modified":"2025-12-14T20:33:28","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T20:33:28","slug":"higa-becomes-first-japanese-golfer-to-win-asian-tour-order-of-merit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=2091","title":{"rendered":"Higa becomes first Japanese golfer to win Asian Tour order of merit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kazuki Higa made history as the first golfer from Japan to win the Asian Tour order of merit after finishing seventh at the season-ending Saudi Open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Higa carded a four-under-par 68 in Saturday&#8217;s final round at Dirab Golf and Country Club, near Riyadh, to finish on 16-under, seven behind the winner Bjorn Hellgren of Sweden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Kizz Daniel, Angelique Kidjo, Johnny Drille - Police (Official Video)\" width=\"980\" height=\"735\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9HnSQVpK8AU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was enough to see Higa top the standings ahead of Zimbabwe&#8217;s Scott Vincent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I am so, so happy. This is a great honour,&#8221; said the 30-year-old Higa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I just love playing golf. That&#8217;s what it&#8217;s about. I can&#8217;t wait to get home to see my family.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Higa also earned an exemption into the British Open for his achievement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ultra-consistent Higa started the year with three top 10s in the Philippines, India and New Zealand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But it was back-to-back wins in September at the Shinhan Donghae Open in South Korea and the Yeangder TPC in Taiwan that shot him up the standings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A tie for second at the International Series Philippines in October propelled him to the top of the order of merit and he never looked back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I have worked very hard for this,&#8221; Higa said. &#8220;I felt that last year changed things, all the hard work started to pay off and it&#8217;s amazing to see it all pay off this week.&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/japantoday.com\/category\/sports\/higa-becomes-first-japanese-golfer-to-win-asian-tour-order-of-merit\">(JapanToday)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kazuki Higa made history as the first golfer from Japan to win the Asian Tour order of merit after finishing seventh at the season-ending Saudi Open. Higa carded a four-under-par 68 in Saturday&#8217;s final round at Dirab Golf and Country Club, near Riyadh, to finish on 16-under, seven behind the winner Bjorn Hellgren of Sweden. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[2473,526,2470,2471],"class_list":["post-2091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-asian-tour-order-of-merit","tag-japan","tag-kazuki-higa","tag-saudi-open"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Higa becomes first Japanese golfer to win Asian Tour order of merit - Tona Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kazuki Higa made history as the first golfer from Japan to win the Asian Tour order of merit after finishing seventh\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=2091\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Higa becomes first Japanese golfer to win Asian Tour order of merit - 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