LIV Golf League<\/a>.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
For Higa, the achievement marks another significant milestone in a rapidly expanding career. He now becomes the first player ever to win both the Asian Tour Order of Merit and the Japan Tour Money List \u2014 the latter claimed in 2022 during a standout season that featured four victories.<\/p>\n
The 30-year-old succeeds American John Catlin as Asian Tour Merit champion. Catlin finished tied 15th at Dirab today and ended the season in 43rd position on the standings.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am so, so happy. This is a great honour,\u201d said Higa, who is currently enjoying a remarkable run of 18 consecutive tournaments played.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just love playing golf. That\u2019s what it about. I can\u2019t wait to get home to see my family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Along with the prestige of topping the Merit list and joining an elite group of champions dating back to 2004, Higa\u2019s success also brings tangible rewards. The title earns him an exemption into The Open Championship via the International Federation Rankings, while a place in the PGA Championship is also available depending on his position in the Official World Golf Ranking.<\/p>\n
Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
\u201cI have worked very hard for this. I felt that last year changed things, all the hard work started to pay off and it\u2019s amazing to see it all pay off this week,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Higa set the tone early in the season with a trio of top-10 finishes, beginning with a tie for eighth at the Smart Infinity Philippine Open, followed by a tie for fifth at the International Series India presented by DLF, and a runner-up finish at the 104th New Zealand Open presented by Sky Sport.<\/p>\n
However, it wasn\u2019t until September that the full scale of his dominance became clear.<\/p>\n
That month, he recorded back-to-back victories at the Shinhan Donghae Open in Korea and the Yeangder TPC in Chinese Taipei, before adding another runner-up finish at the International Series Philippines in late October. That result saw him reclaim top spot on the Order of Merit from Vincent \u2014 and from that point onwards, he was never headed.<\/p>\n
Higa\u2019s ascent to the top of the Asian Tour rankings was no accident. After winning the Japan Tour Money List three years ago, he set his sights on success beyond home soil and committed to playing a full Asian Tour schedule for the first time the following season.<\/p>\n
Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
He also underwent a significant physical transformation, embracing a demanding programme of weight training and aerobic conditioning to generate more distance off the tee.<\/p>\n
It was a new level of dedication that he described earlier this year as practising \u201clike I brush my teeth every day\u201d.<\/p>\n
Higa also opted against signing a driver contract, giving himself the freedom to use equipment that suited him best. He worked extensively on shaping both draws and fades \u2014 all with the aim of adding extra yards.<\/p>\n
The results speak for themselves. His average driving distance stood at 284.41 yards until last season, but that figure has since jumped to an impressive 297.91 yards.<\/p>\n
Despite standing just 158 centimetres tall, Higa is now punching well above his weight.<\/p>\n
Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
He is also renowned as one of the game\u2019s most reliable frontrunners, with the majority of his 13 professional victories coming when leading or co-leading.<\/p>\n
Two of those wins arrived on the Asian Development Tour \u2014 at the BTI Open in Bangladesh in 2018 and the UMC Championship in Malaysia the following year \u2014 early signs of the success that was to come on the main stage.<\/p>\n
Subscribe to our Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kazuki Higa has made history by becoming the first Japanese player to win the Asian Tour Order of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-342751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}