Ikeda widens the gap

Yuta Ikeda has increased his lead at the Nippon Series JT Cup and is now three ahead after the second round.
Yuta Ikeda increased his lead at the Nippon Series JT Cup to three strokes after carding a one-under-par 69 in Friday’s second round.
The 24-year-old, bidding to be crowned Japanese number one at the season-ending event, followed up his first-round 63 with five birdies, two bogeys and a double bogey at the Tokyo Yomiuri Country Club to move to a two-day total of eight under 132.
Ikeda needs to win the tournament to have any chance of moving above Kim Kyung-tae at the top of the Japan Golf Tour money list.
Koumei Oda (67), Tetsuji Hiratsuka (69) and Hiroyuki Fujita (70) sat in a share of second place on five under with Australian Brendan Jones a further stroke back after carding a two over 72.
Ryo Ishikawa more than made amends for a terrible opening round of 76 by firing a superb eight under 62 and storming up the leaderboard into a share of sixth place, six shots behind Ikeda.
Victory for the 19-year-old would mean he too has a chance of overtaking Kim, especially if he comes up with more of the golf that saw him shoot five shots lower than anyone else on Friday.
Kim is a further stroke behind in a share of 10th following a disappointing three over 73.
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