OSAKA –
Yusaku Hosono, a 23-year-old skilled golfer who underwent coronary heart surgical procedure as an toddler and was pressured to desert his childhood dream of enjoying baseball, has emerged as one among Japan’s brightest {golfing} abilities after successful two home main championships this season, changing into the primary left-handed participant in 35 years to assert a males’s tour victory.
Hosono, one among solely two left-handed gamers amongst roughly 200 opponents on Japan’s males’s skilled golf tour, has loved a breakthrough season, successful the Japan PGA Championship for his first skilled title earlier than including the Japan Open, changing into the primary participant since Ryo Ishikawa to seize two home majors in a single season.
Speaking with former Hanshin Tigers pitcher Minoru Iwata, who performed skilled baseball whereas managing kind 1 diabetes, Hosono mirrored on the challenges that formed his profession, the sacrifices made by his household and his ambition to grow to be the primary left-handed participant to complete the season on the prime of Japan’s males’s golf rankings.
Hosono was born with a congenital coronary heart situation and underwent surgical procedure when he was simply two months outdated. Doctors subsequently restricted his bodily exercise, warning that the demanding coaching required to pursue baseball, notably at the highschool degree, could be too strenuous for him.
Baseball had been a pure ambition for Hosono, whose father and older brother each performed the game. His household had initially anticipated him to observe the identical path, however his coronary heart situation pressured a change in path.
Instead, his father launched him to golf, a sport he loved as a interest. Hosono, who is of course left-handed, started enjoying with left-handed golf equipment and regularly developed the abilities that might ultimately take him into the skilled ranks.
“Originally, I really wanted to play baseball because both my father and older brother played,” Hosono mentioned. “But doctors told us I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the amount of training involved because of my heart condition.”
Although golf was initially an alternative choice to the game he cherished, Hosono mentioned the satisfaction of regularly bettering turned it right into a lifelong ardour.
“Something I couldn’t do yesterday becomes something I can do today, or something I couldn’t do last year becomes possible,” he mentioned. “That sense of achievement and happiness is why I’ve continued to enjoy golf all these years.”
His progress was notably difficult as a result of left-handed golfers stay uncommon in Japan, making appropriate tools and observe services tough to search out.
Hosono recalled how his father went to appreciable lengths to acquire golf equipment, generally importing them from abroad or shopping for left-handed girls’s golf equipment and reducing them down to suit his son.
The course of was costly and time-consuming, and Hosono acknowledged the sacrifices his father made to help his improvement.
“My father must have struggled a great deal,” he mentioned. “It cost a lot of money, and looking back, I realize how much difficulty I caused him.”
Despite pursuing a profession in golf, Hosono has remained an enthusiastic baseball fan. He initially supported the Yakult Swallows and notably admired star hitter Munetaka Murakami, whom he traveled to Jingu Stadium to look at.
Hosono mentioned he had additionally begun following the Chicago White Sox due to Murakami, whereas his rising friendship with Iwata had sparked an curiosity within the Hanshin Tigers.
After visiting Hanshin’s spring coaching camp and watching the gamers observe, Hosono admitted he was more and more interested in the Osaka-based membership.
“I thought they looked really cool,” he mentioned. “I’m actually starting to become a Hanshin fan.”
Iwata, who retired from skilled baseball in 2021 after a profession with Hanshin, has developed his personal curiosity in left-handed golf via his friendship with Hosono. Naturally right-handed when enjoying golf, Iwata started experimenting with a left-handed swing after assembly Hosono in 2025.
The former pitcher congratulated Hosono on his Japan Open victory and requested the way it felt to have claimed two of the nation’s largest tournaments in the identical season.
Hosono defined that successful the Japan PGA Championship had given him confidence, and he was decided to not enable an excessive amount of time to cross earlier than claiming his second skilled title.
“I wanted to get my second victory fairly quickly after winning the Japan PGA Championship,” he mentioned. “But I never imagined that second win would come at the Japan Open. I’m simply very happy.”
Iwata praised Hosono’s potential to put pictures precisely fairly than relying totally on driving distance, describing his management and course administration as notably spectacular.
Asked about his method to observe, Hosono mentioned consistency was extra necessary than producing occasional excellent pictures.
“Rather than hitting a shot that’s worth 100 points, I think it’s better to consistently hit shots worth 70 points,” he mentioned. “Even one perfect shot doesn’t necessarily give you a birdie. When I practice, I’m thinking about whether I can repeat that shot throughout an entire day or an entire year.”
Iwata in contrast the philosophy to skilled baseball, the place reliable beginning pitchers should carry out effectively sufficient to maintain their groups aggressive even when they don’t seem to be at their finest.
The dialog additionally turned to bodily conditioning, with Hosono acknowledging that he has thus far undertaken comparatively gentle weight coaching however hopes to develop higher energy as he prepares for a potential transfer into worldwide competitors.
He recognized his arms and again as areas he would notably wish to strengthen, though he acknowledged that including muscle doesn’t robotically enhance {golfing} efficiency and will doubtlessly intrude together with his swing.
Iwata advisable kettlebell coaching, explaining that the workouts strengthen the core, hips, hamstrings and different muscle teams concerned in producing athletic energy.
The former pitcher mentioned that even a number of years after retiring, he had managed to throw a baseball at roughly 134 to 135 kilometers per hour regardless of not training pitching repeatedly, an achievement he partly attributed to kettlebell workouts.
Hosono additionally took the chance to ask Iwata in regards to the psychological stress {of professional} baseball, notably the expertise of pitching in entrance of crowds which may boo a struggling participant.
Golfers not often face that type of direct confrontation throughout competitors, and Hosono mentioned he was inquisitive about how baseball gamers dealt with the stress.
Iwata defined that with their livelihoods relying on outcomes, pitchers have little selection however to focus on getting opposing batters out.
“When you’re out there, all you’re thinking is that you absolutely have to stop them,” he mentioned. “When you get beaten, you really feel it, but the satisfaction of getting the batter out is incredible.”
He in contrast that feeling to the spontaneous fist pump a golfer may make after successful a match.
Hosono now turns his consideration to the ACN Championship Golf Tournament, which might be held at Miki Golf Club in Hyogo Prefecture from November fifth to eighth, as he pursues his ambition of changing into the primary left-handed participant to complete a season as Japan’s males’s tour champion.
He has fond recollections of the match, having completed inside the highest 10 within the earlier yr’s competitors, and believes the course fits his fashion of play.
Hosono additionally feels a particular reference to the Kansai area, the place he celebrated each of his main victories this season in neighboring Shiga Prefecture.
“I finished in the top 10 last year, and it’s a course I really like,” he mentioned. “Both the Japan PGA Championship and the Japan Open were held in Shiga, so I feel I have a strong connection with the Kansai region. I really want to aim for victory at the ACN Championship.”
The match carries complete prize cash of 120 million yen, together with 24 million yen for the winner, and can characteristic 108 opponents over 4 rounds.
The competitors might be broadcast on BS Fuji from November fifth via eighth, with Kansai Television and the Fuji Television community additionally offering protection on November sixth, seventh and eighth.
Source: KTV NEWS