AKB48’s Yamauchi Suzuran attends a pro-am golf tournamentAKB48 member Yamauchi Suzuran (16) attended a new men’s golf tournament, called “Toufumi Hamamatsu Open“, at the Grandy Hamanako Golf Course in Shizuoka prefecture. There she became the first AKB48 member to participate in a pro-am golf tournament.Kuramoto Masahiro (55), the pro golfer partnered with Yamauchi, commented, “She swings like Yokomine Sakura and hits 240 yards with a driver. Not many celebrities have a clean swing like that. It might not be too late for her to consider going pro.”Yamauchi started golf in the third grade, and she has an impressive best score of 92. She commented, “It was a good learning experience to learn how to putt from a pro. It’d be great to get better as a hobby.”Last year, Yamauchi got 36th place in the AKB48 senbatsu election, but this year she says, “My goal is to make the top 22!”
Yamauchi is a member of the just-formed Team 4 and is also known as a skilled golfer who can hit 240 yards with a driver. In this pictorial we can even see her in golf attire that would definitely distract her competition on the course. However, just like the previous segments of “AKB48-chan”, the main theme of the pictorial has her embodying the characteristics of a fruit – this time it’s a peach.Due to her love for golf – and looking like a princess, people always assume that she must be from a rich family, but she just has been devoted to the sport since her childhood. “I’ve been taking lessons since primary school and truly aimed at becoming a pro golfer in the future,” she revealed to Weekly Playboy. She continued, “During junior high school, I went to the golf course everyday and always hit 230~240 yarders.”