Takagane, the vice general manager of Shanghai Rengo Packaging and a Silport member, shot a 13-over-par 85 on the strength of two birdies under windy and slightly wet conditions. He also captured one of the four longest drive awards. The other winners were Yuichiro Nishikawi, Yoshiyuki Kobayashi and Mr Sata.

“There was a real strong wind today and that made things difficult, but I was able to keep my ball in play. That was the key,” said Takagane. “I know this course and I like this course so that really gave me an advantage.”

Takao Morikawa, director and general manager of Shanghai Rainbow Color Plastics, won the low net award as the 28-handicap put together an impressive round of 90 for a net 62. He also won one of the four nearest-the-pin contests. The other winners were Teruho Inagaki, Tetsushi Kanetomi and Kazuhiko Furukawa.

Takaharu Matsuo, director of Toto (Shanghai), a subsidiary of the Japanese sanitary equipment and plumbing hardware giant Toto, said the tournament, which featured a field of 50 China-based Japanese businessmen, was the first of four quarterly events the company was planning this year.

“These golf tournaments are a good vehicle for us to communicate with our customers. We invited people we do banking with in addition to material suppliers and it works really well. Japanese businessmen really like golf so it is an ideal venue to get together, he said.