DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES | Keita Nakajima’s pace of play is electric. He is always ready for his next shot. However, after 73½ holes of lightning golf at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship, he nearly took 85 seconds to size up his next putt – more than twice the time he should take.
This was the second playoff hole at the Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht club, but it wasn’t a putt with the championship on the line. To an outsider, the 20-footer did not deserve that much respect.
The fact is, after Hong Kong’s Taichi Kho hit his second shot into the water guarding the front of the green, Nakajima (above) would have won even if he three-putted from where he was. A casual flick of the putter would have sufficed, but he gave it the complete treatment – pacing around the hole, sitting down, judging the slope from the side and behind, doing his AimPoint technique. Once he did that, he repeated it for a second time.
This is probably what separates the No. 1 player on the World Amateur Golf Ranking from other equally talented players. Nakajima knew he was winning, but he wanted to win with a birdie. As Japan’s national coach Gareth Jones puts it, he wanted to win it in “real style.”
The birdie putt snaked perfectly into the middle of the cup. The two fist pumps by Nakajima, by his standards, amounted to a wild celebration. The stoic expression that never left his face from the moment he hit his first tee shot changed into a smile as his teammates rushed over and doused him in water.
Nakajima then quickly composed himself and bowed respectfully towards the golf course. It’s something he has been taught from Day 1 when he started playing golf with his father. And then came the flood of tears. It continued from the 18th green to the first tee, where he was presented the trophy under the imposing Dubai Creek clubhouse.
“I cry too much,” Nakajima later said, somewhat embarrassed.
He may have hyperactive lacrimal glands, but he is not a softie.
In fact, his participation was in doubt when he sprained his ankle badly just days before his flight to Dubai. It looked bad in the beginning but was managed properly by the staff traveling with the team from his national association.
“He sprained his left ankle in Japan three days before departure,” said Jun Nagashima, the high performance manager of Japan Golf Association, who has been a constant companion with the team for eight years. “I had to do a lot of physio work with him. He took it very easy in the first practice round. We had to tape his ankle properly before every round. But he never used that as an excuse.
“The most impressive thing for me was how much he wanted to win this, and how he went about it. He had to calm himself down at various points because he could feel the pressure and he was completely focused on his processes.”
Remarkably, Nakajima set himself two goals for the 2021 season – to win at least once against the seasoned professionals of the Japan Golf Tour, and to win the Asia-Pacific Amateur title and follow in the footsteps of mentor Hideki Matsuyama and his best friend Takumi Kanaya.
He has now ticked both the boxes. He won the Panasonic Open on the JGTO, where he famously hit his driver on every par-4 and par-5. And he now won the AAC, a title that slipped from his grasp in 2018 in Singapore when he three-putted the 17th hole on Sunday.
“I am very proud of how he played,” said Jones, the coach who has been involved with Nakajima’s career for more than five years. “It’s impressive, because there was not just the ankle sprain, but also a back injury a few weeks ago that forced him to withdraw from a JGTO event.
“There were a couple of moments in the tournament that were noteworthy. The way he made his par on the 18th in the third round after hitting into the penalty area, and then how he maintained his composure and focus after the double bogey on the ninth hole in the final round, and making only a par on the par-5 10th, a hole where everyone else was making a birdie. He just took everything on the chin and bounced back from every adversity.”
Nagashima added: “We have been trying to develop the mental strength of every player in the National team. And Gareth started this thing called ‘deep practice.’ He has asked the players to treat every practice round and every minute at the driving range with the same intensity as they would in a competitive round. Any practice a player does has to be target oriented. That has definitely helped the boys become stronger on the golf course.”
The AAC win earned Nakajima an invite to the 2022 Masters Tournament and an entry into the 150th Open Championship at St Andrews. Also, after receiving the Mark H. McCormack Medal for being the leading men’s player in WAGR, he’ll have a spot in the 2022 US Open.
“(Keita Nakajima) knew coming in here as the world No. 1 was extra pressure. Everyone knew that he was the guy to beat. But I think he prepared really well for it.”
Jun Nagashima
Someone asked him if he can beat Matsuyama at the Masters? “I will try my best,” he said.
Another person asked him about playing three majors next year. “I am very excited.”
Speaking in English seems to be the only thing Nakajima is struggling against at the moment.
It’s all part of JGA’s plan. Nagashima’s English is excellent and the JGA also sent an English translator. But Jones has decided to throw his players in the deep end of the pool. It is a bit frustrating for the media, but there cannot be better training for the future.
Nagashima said: “He knew coming in here as the world No. 1 was extra pressure. Everyone knew that he was the guy to beat. But I think he prepared really well for it. Not just what he did at the golf course, but also the speech in English and the interviews with Amanda (Balionis) on the Golf Channel and with the media. His English is not perfect, but he is showing his confidence by doing it without any help.”
Jones added: “Two things are going to be vital if he wants a future on the PGA Tour, which is where he wants to head to. He must hit the ball at least 300 yards off the tee, and he has to be able to converse properly in English.
“He is a very fit and strong boy. Because we play in the Asia-Pacific region where heat and humidity can be a big factor, we took a nutritionist on board a few years ago. We are trying to connect the food with strength and conditioning.
“The boys have worked very well with him, but Keita is a step ahead. He is getting a human movement degree at the Japan Sports Science University and he is a very serious student. He is, in fact, leading the team in this regard. He is extremely fit himself and uses it alongside our SuperSpeed programme. He has a clubhead speed of 120 mph, which he can ramp up whenever he wants. And like a good leader, he is pushing other players to follow his example.”
Armed with a bullet-proof swing that is holding up even when under the most severe pressure, Nakajima is planning to turn professional towards the end of next year. If he continues to follow the same career trajectory and it is not interrupted by injuries, we might soon have a serious contender on the PGA Tour.
Joy Chakravarty