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Home > Jeff Schultz > Archives > 2008 > May > 18
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Families in Japan lose sleep
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The reactions on the 18th green were just as you would expect. The golfer raised his hands. The wife broke down in tears. The section of the gallery roped off for human Dogs woofed.
But the real celebration presumably was a half-world away in Hiroshima, Japan.
“Oh, it’s, um, I think
5:15 in the morning,” the wife, Kanae Imada, said Sunday as she wiped her eyes. “Most people are sleeping. Except for my family, and his family.”
“I’m sure they were watching on TV,” the golfer, Ryuji Imada, said. “My dad is probably still up. He’s probably still drinking.”
It has been a while since that whole, go-to-America, land-of-opportunity thing. But you wouldn’t know it by charting Ryuji Imada’s career. At 14, he left Hiroshima to attend a Tampa golf academy. He learned English. He become one of the nation’s top amateurs and attended Georgia for two years. His game graduated to the Nationwide Tour and then the PGA Tour.
On Sunday, 17 years after the move, Imada won his first tour event, in a playoff over Kenny Perry. If the AT&T Classic were going to fold without much in the way of attention or marquee value, at least the closing act came with a pretty good story line.
“When he made the putt, I remembered everybody’s face in Japan,” Kanae said. “Everybody — so happy.”
Now, how this translates in Duluth is anybody’s guess. But if a Japanese native and a former Bulldog winning the 40th Classic doesn’t prompt some combination of Sony, Mitsubishi, Toyota, Nissan and Steverino’s Pizza to buy sponsorships, something is seriously wrong.
It was a nice end to a strange week. The tournament lacked stars. The conversation mostly centered on the title sponsor’s exit.
But that’s kind of the way things have been going at Sugarloaf. The club’s highest-profile residents have lost their revenue streams: Michael Vick, Lisa Ann Taylor, the golf tournament.
The finish was not without some irony. Imada finished second in last year’s Classic, when he lost in a playoff to Zach Johnson, his second shot on the 18th landing in the drink. This time, he watched as Perry’s approach shot sailed high and wide right of the green, bounced off a pine tree and rolled back across the green and into the water.
Even stranger was Perry’s comment later, “I hit a good 5-wood.”
No, Kenny: That wasn’t a beautiful 5-wood. That was just wood.
Perry’s gaffe, which resulted in a bogey, allowed Imada to lay up with his approach shot and play for a conservative par.
“That’s the normal way to play, I guess,” Imada said.
There was nothing nor- mal about his week. Imada opened with a rain-soaked 71 on Thursday, this despite forgetting to bring rain gear. He followed that in the next three days with a 69, 66 and 67, totaling 15 birdies and only one bogey.
There was a crowd of fourth-round leaders, most notably Parker McLachlin, who had a three-shot lead after an eagle on 13 but bogeyed three of the last five holes.
Perry birdied 13, 15 and 16 to take a one-shot lead over Imada. But on 18, Imada hit a 3-wood just to the right of the green, just missed an eagle when his 70-foot chip rolled past the cup, and tapped in for the tying birdie, sending it to a playoff.
“Last year it was the same scenario, but I was actually the chaser instead of, you know, being chased,” Imada said. “It was easier this time.”
He now has a win. He also has an invitation to the Masters. “It’s the tournament I always dreamed of playing as a kid,” he said.
English comes easily now. So does golf. He came over at 14 but never felt overwhelmed.
“All I ever wanted to do was play golf, so this has been fun,” he said. “To learn English, to learn a culture, it has been great.”
There’s something for the tournament to sell.
