Americans Win Fuji Xerox USA vs. Japan Collegiate Golf Championship

 

Team USA claims 32-28 victory

ICHIHARA, Japan —The United States won five matches and halved another in the final round of the 2004 Fuji Xerox USA vs. Japan Collegiate Golf Championship at the Taiheiyou Club Ichihara Course in Ichihara, Japan, to claim a 32-28 victory. The win was the United States’ ninth straight and gives the Americans an all-time 22-7 series lead. Team USA’s Michael Putnam won the men’s MVP award while Charlotte Mayorkas shared the women’s MVP with Japan’s Miki Saiki.

Holding a 21-15 lead entering the day, the United States appeared to be headed for a loss in the first match of the round, but Giteku Gon missed a three-foot put for double bogey and the win to halve with Justin Smith, 69-69. Team USA followed with two-straight wins - a 66-68 John Holmes victory and J.J. Jakovac’s 73-75 finish against Toru Nakajima - to pull out to a 26-16 lead. Japan would follow by winning the next two matches after Nolan Martin’s second shot went in the water on No. 18 to lose the match by one-stroke (70-71) to Takamasa Yamamoto and Yuta Ikeda downed Trent Erb (67-77).

Jeff Overton won the round’s sixth match after his opponent - Japan’s Haruo Fujishima - ran out of balls after hitting two into the water on the 18th hole. Overton offered a ball to Fujishima to finish the match but Fujishima declined. Overton was up by five strokes after No. 17 and birdied 18 to finish at two-under-par 69. Tatsunori Nukaga defeated Peter Tomasulo by three strokes, 73-76. Putnam clinched the win for Team USA with a 10-stroke victory in the final men’s match of the competition.

Japan claimed the first three women’s matches - Chiharu Tsunekawa downed Anna Grzebien, 71-77, Mao Kohyama defeated Kailin Downs, 73-75, and Chika Yamamoto beat Brooke Tull 74-76. Mayorkas defeated Saiki, 67-73, in the battle of MVPs in the final match of the competition for a final team score of 32-28. Saiki led for the first 11 holes before Mayorkas claimed the six-stroke victory.