RYO ISHIKAWA set a new Japan Golf Tour record by carding a stunning 12-under-par 58 to win the seventh title of his career at The Crowns yesterday.

The 18-year-old started the day six shots behind overnight leader Shigeki Maruyama but conjured up 12 birdies, including nine on his first 11 holes, without dropping a shot for a five-stroke victory at Nagoya Golf Club.

Hiroyuki Fujita carded a 66 to finish in a share of second with Australian Paul Sheehan (68) while Maruyama finished with a 72 to drop into a share of eighth on five under.

Ishikawa seemed shocked by achieving the lowest score ever on a major tour at such an early stage in his career.

“It’s absolutely unbelievable – I don’t know where all those birdies came from,” he said. “Seeing my score improve by 12 strokes at the end – it’s like a dream. The record hasn’t sunk in at all at this point. It will take a bit of time.”

The previous Japanese Tour record of 59 was set by Masahiro Kuramoto in the first round of the Acom International in 2003, while Annika Sorenstam also had a 59 on the LPGA Tour.

Carlow’s Aedin Murphy finished a highly respectable 14th in the Welsh Ladies Open stroke-play championship at Southerndown yesterday.

Murphy, who came to the fore when producing a brilliant second round to qualify for the knock-out phase of the British Ladies championship last season, ended with a 54-hole aggregate of 228 – six over par.

That performance, although she finished 12 strokes off the pace, augurs well for the season.

“I frittered away a number of strokes but hit the ball pretty well,” said Murphy.

Julie Yang, a product of the Loretto Academy in Scotland, won the title after a sudden-death play-off with England’s Nikki Foster, both players having finished on 216-six under par.