CALM AND FOCUS: Japan's Order of Merit Champion Hiroyuki Fujita appointed by Captain Y.E. Yang for Royal Trophy duty (COURTESY OF ROYAL TROPHY)

Team captain Y.E. Yang has followed up from his previous player appointments for the Asian Team at the next Royal Trophy with the nomination of another Asian golf superstar – Japan's Hiroyuki Fujita.

Hiroyuki Fujita, 41, who played a fantastic season resulting in him winning the Japan Golf Tour Order of Merit title 2012, joins Y.E. Yang's team to face the might of Europe at the Dragon Lake Golf Club in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, on December 20-22.

Fujita, one of Japan's most accomplished players, presented an himself as a viable option for selection with four tournament victories and being on his way to secure the top position at the Asia Tour, as well as registering nine more top ten finishes. He also recorded the lowest stroke average on the Tour.

His glorious run this season took his career total to 15 wins on the Japan Golf Tour – and he almost made it to 16 when he finished as a runner-up at the PGA Championship Nissin Cup-noodles Cup earlier this year.

Y.E. Yang – one of the stars of Asia's dramatic play-off victory over Europe in the 2012 Royal Trophy – said selecting Fujita was one of his easier decisions. "He is a very experienced and highly effective player and will be a great asset in our efforts to prevail over the Europeans at the Royal Trophy."

The Asian Team has four players, including Korea's K.T. Kim, China's Liang Wenchong and the two Japanese players Hiroyuki Fujita and Hideki Matsuyama. 

"The team is developing extremely well and I am very confident that we will present very tough opposition to the Europeans," Y.E. Yang said.

Fujita is delighted to be making his first appearance in the Royal Trophy event, which was inspired by Seve Ballesteros and first held in 2006.  In the early years of the competition, the charismatic Ballesteros, one of the greatest advocates for the popularization of the sport, looked forward to the time when it would be hosted in China.

Following Seve's death two years ago, after a brave battle with brain cancer, the Royal Trophy forms part of his glorious legacy to the game he illuminated while winning five Major championships and a staggering 96 tournaments worldwide.

"This is the first time I will compete for Asia at the Royal Trophy and I am very excited about it. I have followed the growth of the Event closely and many of my Japan Golf Tour colleagues have captained the Asian Team or played for the continent," Fujita said. "The competition is embedded in great history and was inspired by the late Seve Ballesteros. This is a fact that I will always respect and honour."

The Royal Trophy is played over three days in a highly competitive team match-play format across a total of sixteen matches including foursomes, four-ball and singles matches. Asia and Europe are each represented by a team of eight players from their continent.

"It is very exciting to witness the strength of the Asian Team which Captain Y.E. Yang is bringing together. The next edition of the Royal Trophy promises to deliver another magnificent edition of this traditional and very well established competition," said Lincoln Venancio, the Royal Trophy Co-Managing Director.