Staff WriterThere are ordinary Sunday finishes, and then there is International Series Japan, which Travis Smyth won in the sort of fashion usually reserved for daydreams, dares, and the more unreasonable corners of a young golfer’s imagination.
Standing on the 18th green at Caledonian Golf Club near Tokyo, the Australian rolled in a 20-foot eagle putt to win by one, avoid a play-off, and turn a tense leaderboard into a small piece of golfing theatre.
He signed for a closing seven-under-par 64 to finish on 15-under, one clear of Thailand’s Pavit Tangkamolprasert and Japan’s Ryosuke Kinoshita, who had already posted 14-under totals and were waiting to see whether the tournament would come back to them.
It did not.
A finish with no room for blinking
For much of Sunday, this looked like the kind of scrap that might spill beyond regulation play. Pavit and Kinoshita had come charging from further back with the sort of rounds that force everyone else to look over their shoulder. Pavit shot a brilliant 62, the low round of the week, while Kinoshita followed with a 63 to give the home crowd every reason to believe the title might stay in Japan.
Smyth, though, kept moving without fuss and without panic.
Starting the day two behind the leaders, he eased into the round with birdies at the first, second and sixth. It was the work of a man trying to stay attached rather than a man already sprinting for the tape. Then, as the scoring picked up and the course yielded chances all over the back nine, he found another gear.
Birdies at the 13th and 16th nudged him within one of the clubhouse lead. That set the stage for the 18th, where he gained two shots at precisely the right moment and won International Series Japan before anyone could start measuring the play-off hole.
“That’s what dreams are made of right there,” said the Australian about his closing putt.
“As a young kid, you know, you’re on the putting green having putting comps with your mates, you’re trying to chip in to win, you’re trying to hole 25 footers to win. And that was unbelievable.
“You know, I won a tournament two weeks ago, probably a pretty similar putt downhill, left to right – just drew upon that. But yeah, for it to go in like that, it’s the best feeling ever.”
The leaderboard turned completely upside down
Sunday at International Series Japan was not won by hanging on. It was the sort of day that demanded acceleration.
Pavit’s 62 was the sharpest round of the championship, built on 10 birdies and only one dropped shot. After a bogey at the third, he responded like a man who had misplaced patience and decided not to go looking for it, making seven birdies in the next eight holes.
He said: “Today I played pretty much like perfect golf. I drove the ball very well; I hit my irons very good and I was putting well. So, everything was like on momentum. I sunk putts and had like a streak on the first nine, so I gained confidence with my putting.”
Kinoshita’s 63 carried equal menace. Coming from the sixth-last group, he gave the Japanese fans something substantial to hold onto and briefly looked as though he might have authored the defining home victory of the week.
The men who began the final round tied for the lead could not quite stay in the fight. Korea’s Hongtaek Kim closed with a 69 to finish tied fifth, while Japan’s Shugo Imahira shot 70 and ended the week in a tie for seventh. Neither collapsed. They were simply overtaken in a final round that moved at the speed of a downhill putt.
Smyth’s form is no accident now
This was not a bolt from the blue. It was the latest, loudest note in a stretch of form that is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.
The 31-year-old had already won the ISPS Handa Japan-Australasia Championship last month, putting himself firmly on course for the 2025/26 Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit. Before arriving in Japan, he had also finished third and fifth in the opening two events of the Asian Tour season.
Now, after winning International Series Japan, he leads both the Asian Tour Order of Merit and The International Series Rankings.
That matters.
The International Series is the elevated tier on the Asian Tour and offers a pathway to the LIV Golf League through its season-long rankings. In plain terms, this victory brings silverware, status, and a rather useful shove forward in the season’s wider race.
It is also Smyth’s first title on The International Series and the second Asian Tour win of his career, following the Yeangder TPC in 2022.
He explained: “I’ve had a hard time trying to win tournaments. People don’t understand how hard it is to win, you know. Like it’s such a mind game with yourself out there. In the past, like you’re always trying to come up with excuses as to why you might not be leading, or why you might not be hitting the shots under pressure that you want to, but I don’t know, I’ve been able to turn a corner.”
That last line may prove the most important of the lot.
Because golfers talk about “turning a corner” the way sailors talk about weather: often, nervously, and with the knowledge that it can change in a moment. But Smyth’s recent results suggest this is not borrowed confidence or a lucky fortnight. He looks more settled, more dangerous, and rather more comfortable with the unpleasant business of winning.
Truslow supplies the day’s strangest detour
No final-round shootout is complete without at least one moment bordering on the absurd, and Austen Truslow handled that brief nicely.
The American finished fourth on his own, two behind the champion, after closing with a 65. His round was fuelled by an eagle on the par-four 16th that deserves a separate filing cabinet. His first tee shot struck overhanging cables, allowing him to replay it. He then drove the green and holed the putt from around 30 feet.
Because golf is golf, he then had a similar eagle chance on the 18th and missed it.
“On 16, I mean, that was a crazy situation,” he said. “It hit the telephone pole line, got to re tee, and then I drove it to 36 feet and made the putt. And the first ball was going probably 20 yards right of the green. So that was insane. That’s the craziest eagle in my life. So that happened.”
Quite.
What International Series Japan means from here
The opening event of the season on The International Series has already produced a result with proper weight to it.
For Smyth, this win confirms that his recent surge is built on more than form alone. There is momentum now, yes, but also proof under pressure. He stared down a packed leaderboard, handled a back-nine birdie rush, and finished the job with the cleanest blow available: one putt, two shots, tournament over.
For the Asian Tour, International Series Japan delivered exactly what these events are meant to provide — strong fields, movement in the rankings, LIV Golf implications, and enough late drama to keep the whole thing from becoming a procession.
And for everyone else, it was a reminder that golf still does its best work when it leaves no margin for certainty and no time for speeches.
The tour now moves to the Singapore Open presented by The Business Times, another US$2 million event at The Serapong at Sentosa Golf Club from 23-26 April, and also part of The International Series.
Smyth will arrive there with the rankings lead, the Order of Merit lead, and the kind of confidence that tends to travel well.
