Japan's Sakura and Rui Yokomine
Although Ai Miyazato is by far the favourite women professional in Japan, YOKOMINE, SAKURA is close second or has caught up as the most followed Japanese woman professional.
Together the duo won the 2005 Women's World Cup of Golf in South Africa. But come next week, Sakura with immense playing skill is set to "torch" the fairways of Hirao Country Club in Toyokawa City, near Nagoya when she tees off in the USD120,000 Yumeya Dream Cup from Feb 24-26.
This time around, there's no Miyazato, but threatening Sakura's dream of winning the tournament is older sister YOKOMINE, RUI.
In terms of winning tournaments and top 10 finishes, Rui trails Sakura, but has shown some uphill performances of late to challenge her younger sibling to lift the Cup.
However, Sakura was quick to say that the competition was not about "fighting" with her older sister. "My focus is on winning and not to challenge Rui. This is a tournament and while there is no love lost between us, we have our own targets - to win tournaments, so there's obviously going to be rivalry but it's all confined to the fairways," said Sakura, the 2009 winner and 2010 runner-up in the Japan Order of Merit.
Rui however, said golf is an individual game and the focus should be on how she is going to approach playing in the tournament.
"The tournament is not all about Sakura. There is a strong field out there, players from the USA, South Korea, and other countries in Asia particularly Thailand. So it's going to be an open challenge and not a 'family at war'" said Rui.
The excitement is also catching up on other Japanese players who are keen to shine on home turf. Japan LPGA Regular Tour shall start immediately the week after LAGT's Yumeya Dream Cup, so a lot of JLPGA tour regular players compete the LAGT tournament not only for competing in the LAGT but also for warming up for their regular tour in Japan.
WAKABAYASHI, MAIKO, YONEYAMA, MIDORI and Chinese YE, LI YING are all exempted players in JLPGA tour. Midori Yoneyama who residents near Hirao Country Club where the tournament is being held and 46th on the JLPGA Order of Merit in 2010 said: " This tournament is held in my home town. Why can't I be excited. This has raised my adrenalin to win...why not?"
IKUSHIMA, SAORI, who last played on the Ladies Asian Golf Tour event in Zhuhai, China in 2006, is glad to be back playing on the LAGT.
"It's nice to be back playing in their calendar season. I've been playing on the Japan Tour and did not take part in any of the LAGT event since Zhuhai. My game has improved a lot and I feel confident that I could have a good week," prior to the start of the Japan LPGA events next month," she said.
Ikushima said the LAGT has been growing in popularity and forsees that the Tour will be the biggest in the near future, eclipsing all the major women's tour.
Another favourite, SAKURAI, YUKI said while iwas interesting to note that the green speed is around 11 to 12 on the stimpmetre, the challeging and undulating Hirao Country Club, will certainly pose a lot of challenges to the strong field of 106 players.
"I've not played on this course, today's practice was my first and the course, especially the greens are superb. But its layout, steep drops and curves make it very interesting and challenging," said the 22-year-old Yuki.
"The LAGT is beginning to be an interesting tour in Asia. It does not lack quality field as most players from this tour - players like Koreans Shin Ji-yai, Ee Jun-hee, Park Hee-young, Taiwan's Tseng Ya Ni and several others are enjoying a good run in the USLPGA events," said Yuki.
