Shigeki Maruyama arrives back in Japan after his World Cup win. (Jiji)

At the men's World Golf Championships - the EMC World Cup held in Mexico in December 2002 - the Japanese team of Shigeki Maruyama and Toshimitsu Izawa (site is Japanese only) held off a powerful US team to claim victory. This was Japan's first World Cup in golf since 1957, when the event was held in Saitama Prefecture and the team of Torakichi Nakamura and Koichi Ono came out on top. Having been eclipsed for 45 years by teams from other countries, Japan's professional golfers are delighted to be basking in the limelight once again.

Former Schoolmates Team to Victory
The relationship between Izawa, 34, and Maruyama, 33, extends back to their days as students at Nittai Ebara High School in Tokyo. Both had undergone rigorous golf training from a young age, and both were already working hard at the game in high school, hoping to turn professional and eventually represent their country. At the World Championships in Puerto Vallarta, a four-day event, the duo put on a fabulous display of teamwork. They claimed the lead on day three with a birdie rush, and they held off a furious comeback by the US team on the final day. Not until the final hole, when the US pair made double bogey, was the battle finally over, with the Japanese pair securing a two-stroke, 36-under-par victory.

For Maruyama, the victory capped a fantastic year. It was his third triumph on the US PGA Tour with the world's top golfers, and in May 2002 he won the Byron Nelson Classic over a field that included Tiger Woods. Coupled with his first US win in 2001, this victory made him the first Asian-born player to win twice on the PGA Tour. Then, in July, he narrowly missed a chance to claim the first major title for a Japanese player at the Open Championship at Muirfield, Scotland. Known by fans as the "smilin' assassin" owing to an ever-present smile and perky personality that mask his fierce competitiveness, Maruyama has a large popular following overseas as well as in Japan.

For Izawa, who competes primarily on the Japanese tour, 2002 was a year without a victory until the World Cup came along. But he had a very good year in 2001. That year he showcased his talent with a fourth-place finish in the Masters, the highest yet by a Japanese player, and he also was then leading money winner on the Japanese tour.

More Japanese Golfers Shine Overseas
Encouraged by the likes of Maruyama and Izawa, more and more Japanese golfers have begun to emerge on the world golf stage. Toru Taniguchi and Shingo Katayama have made their presence felt in major tournaments, and Kaname Yokoo has competed on the PGA Tour since 2001. In addition, female golfers Akiko Fukushima and Hiromi Kobayashi are active on the US women's tour, where they are pitting their skills against the world's best. Not to be outdone, such old-timers as Isao Aoki (site is Japanese only), who was the first Japanese player ever to win a title on the PGA Tour, is currently active on the US senior tour and was victorious at the Instinet Classic held in May 2002.

Japanese golf is also breeding such junior talents as 17-year-old Ai Miyazato. She won Japan's first-ever gold medal for a Japanese female golfer in the women's individual golf event at the Asian Games held in the autumn of 2002 in Busan, South Korea. With other up-and-coming Japanese golfers also on the scene, it seems a sure bet that the number of Japanese challenging the world's best golfers will increase in the coming years.