After four days of pressure-packed golf, 73 players have made it through to tomorrow’s final round of the Asian Tour Qualifying School – where the ultimate prize lies await: 35 Tour Cards for 2025.

Players from North Asia have a stranglehold on the leaderboard, with Japan’s Takumi Murakami in front by two from Korean Kyungnam Kang.

Murakami carded a six-under-par 65 to move to 19-under here at Lake View Resort and Golf Club, in Hua Hin, Thailand, while Kang, the leader by three at the start of the day, shot a 70.

Japan’s Yosuke Asaji (67) and Taiki Yoshida (69) plus Korean Doyeob Mun (67) are joint third, four behind the leader.

Takumi Murakami. Picture by Paul Lakatos/Asian Tour.

Australian Jack Thompson (69), the winner here two years ago, is one shot further back along with countryman Lawry Flynn 68. They all played the C and D nines today but move back to playing A and B tomorrow.

Murakami is 25 years old and has played the main tour and challenge tour in Japan the past few seasons.

He started on 10 today and was in trouble after making the turn in one-over-par but found some inspiration on the second half making an eagle and five birdies – four of those in a row – for a 28.

‘Well, my putting was really good,” he said.

“The first half didn’t flow very well but the second half was amazing. On the first hole of the back nine I got a birdie, and the flow of my putting kept getting better and better, and in the end, I got a big score.”

He failed to earn a card in his only other attempt at Qualifying School in 2020 but is making up for that this week.

Kyungnam Kang. Picture by Paul Lakatos/Asian Tour.

He said: “I don’t know what it is, but I’m interested in overseas tours and it’s amazing. I also like watching overseas tours. I’ve always wanted to try something like this because I think it would be a good learning experience.”

After an impressive week, Kang, also the joint first-round leader, wasn’t quite on point today but the experienced veteran, with 11 wins in Korea to his name, will be one of the favourites tomorrow.

He said: “Today my putting wasn’t very good, but also, I played the CD course today and I think the AB course suits my game better. The final round is on AB, so I will try as hard as I can tomorrow.

“I’m 17 under at the moment, and I want to be more than 20 under for my total. In practice I’ve shot much lower scores on the AB course, so my target is more than 20 under total and I want to try to win.”

Yosuke Asaji. Picture by Paul Lakatos/Asian Tour.

The cut was made at four under. Singapore’s Koh Deng Shan was one of those to make it through at the last minute by birdieing his final hole for a 67.

Spain’s Alejandro Canizares, son of Ryder Cup star Jose-Maria Canizares, agonisingly missed by one after a bogey on the last.