Guntaek Koh was the home hero once again as he claimed the Shinhan Donghae Open on the Ocean Course at Club72 for his third win of the season in Korea. He eventually saw off Thailand’s Phachara Khongwatmai on the first hole of a sudden-death play-off during a race to the finish.

Koh, joint overnight leader with Canadian Richard T Lee, had closed with a four-under-par 68, matching the clubhouse total of 19-under set by Phachara – who, playing in seventh from last group out and starting the day five off the lead, shot a remarkable 63.

The Korean had to birdie the par-five 18th to catch his Thai opponent in regulation play, after hitting a brilliant third shot to three feet, and he then proceeded to make four again in the play-off, holing a 10-footer. Phachara, attempting to become the first Thai to have his name etched on to the trophy, had tried to reach the green in two but found the lake in front of the green. Remarkably, he hit his fourth to 12 feet and drained the par putt forcing Koh to make his for the win, which he duly did, to the roar of the huge crowded assembled there.

Koh’s brilliant finish showed why he has been the dominant player in Korea this year. He leads the Korean PGA Tour rankings having won the 18th DB Insurance Promy Open in April, and the Honors Invitational in June.

“There have been failures in the past few years, but this is my season,” said Koh, who also won his second event this year in extra time.

“The first win this year was the hardest but now I am in the mode and enjoying the experience. Today required a lot of patience and concentration as with Phachara having posted such a good score early on the chase was on. I felt I had to make that birdie putt in the play-off, if not I felt I was going to lose.

“A victory in an event on this scale, against the best from the Asian Tour and Japan Tour is simply incredible.”

Earlier in the day, the 23-year-old from Jeju had a one shot-lead over Lee at the turn after going out in four-under-par 32, thanks to birdies on four and five and an eagle on the par-five seventh, with Phachara another shot back. However, he dropped a shot on 10 and made a double on 13, while Phachara stormed into the lead.

Koh was on the 15th when Phachara finished his round, two-behind the Thai golfer, along with Lee. Both made birdie on that hole to move one closer, but Lee fell away with a bogey on 16, paving the way for Koh’s grandstand finish.

Phachara was looking to secure his second victory on the Asian Tour — his first was the Laguna Phuket Championship at the end of 2021 — but he took solace from the fact he had found is swing again.

“I am back to my old game now,” said the Thai star, “because I only just found my swing last week, before I arrived at this tournament. I found with my coach on Sunday.

“I had lost it about three weeks ago. For those two events in UK my swing was gone. I was relying on my short game to make the cut in those UK events. I couldn’t figure it out until my coach helped.”

With two fourth-place finishes this year it will surely not be long before he wins again.

He added: “My game now is very, very good. Best since I started playing golf. Normally my driver is the problem but now it’s great. I hit many fairways today and I had a lot of birdies.”

Lee, winner of this event in 2017, returned a 70 and tied for third with Japan’s Keita Nakajima and Australian Anthony Quayle.

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Juvic Pagunsan needed only 11 clubs and no caddie to get his first win on the Japan Tour.

By Brendan Porath
Unlike Bryson DeChambeau, Juvic Pagunsan did not have a dew guy spritzing his ball on the range to simulate moisture conditions. He did not even have a caddie. And because he did not even have a caddie, he did not even have a full set of clubs, as he tried to lighten his load last week.

But none of that mattered for Pagunsan, who went out with just 11 clubs in his bag, slung over his own shoulder, and won the Mizuno Open on the Japan Tour. It was the third time he carried his own bag this year and his first-ever win on the Japan Tour, which permitted caddies to only follow riding in carts for the event because of COVID-19 precautions. He cited the annoyance of having to navigate the carts around the greens as reason for walking and carrying his own bag. That sentiment and the limited set will undoubtedly make him a hero of the moment for golf traditionalists everywhere.

Pagunsan said he removed the clubs from his bag to make things lighter on the walk around JFE Setonaikai Golf Club, where he won by three shots.

“I am getting older and last 2 times with 14 clubs were really heavy,” he said. “I don’t like to use the electric carts, since you have to go all the way around the greens.”

He took out his 8, 6, 4, and 3 irons, opting to keep four wedges and a 19-degree utility club in the bag. There were occasional gaps he had to confront. For example, with a 6 iron not available, he said he had to hit what he called a “stronger” 7 iron into the 16th hole to compensate. The limited set, however, seemed to simplify things more often than not for Pagunsan.

“Since there are fewer choices, I can save the trouble of choosing and play easily,” he said. Ryan French of the Monday Q Info Twitter account added that, in addition to the 11 clubs, Pagunsan also used only four golf balls for the entire tournament.

The victory gets him into the Open Championship at Royal St. George’s in July. While this was the 43-year-old’s first-ever win on the Japan Tour, it will be his third start in The Open, which prides itself on being “the world’s major” with a variety of international avenues into the field. Pagunsan claimed one of those avenues at the Mizuno Open, but now the question is whether he’ll play with a limited set and carry his own bag at the game’s oldest major. It would certainly make him a story again on one of golf’s largest stages.

Regardless of what happens at that major championship, this breakthrough on the Japan Tour seems to be a career-defining moment of affirmation for the veteran. “It has been 10 years, 10 years,” he said. “It took me 10 years to win. Now I am relieved.”

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Ask Satoshi Kodaira, who tried to get through the PGA Tour’s Qualifying Tournament in 2014, played a few Web.com Tour events but then retreated to his native Japan, where he started finding some success. Two of his six victories on the Japan Tour came just last year when he also made the cut in the U.S. Open and PGA Championship.

Now the 28-year-old is a winner on the PGA Tour after defeating reigning Players champion Si Woo Kim in a sudden-death playoff Sunday at the RBC Heritage. Kodaira sank a 25-foot birdie putt on the third extra hole at windswept Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head, S.C., to win in just his 15th PGA Tour start.

“This is a stage I’ve been dreaming about, and to have an opportunity to play full-time on the PGA Tour is a dream come true,” Kodaira said, readily accepting membership and the two-year exemption that comes with the victory.

The Tokyo native received a sponsor exemption into the event because he is ranked among the top 50 in the world. That status also gave him a berth in the Masters a week earlier, where he finished T-28 in his debut at Augusta National.

Kodaira won in just his 15th PGA Tour start after six wins in his native Japan. (Tyler Lecka/Getty Images)

Though he hadn’t recorded a top-10 finish previously in a tour event, that hardly mattered Sunday when he began the day six strokes behind third-round leader Ian Poulter and five back of Kim. Despite the gusting winds, Kodaira posted a closing 66 and 12-under 272 total, and then watched Kim, Poulter and Luke List struggle coming home.

Winning wasn’t even his primary thought entering the final round. “I was thinking mostly of getting into the top-10 so I could play next week,” Kodaira admitted. Then he offered another admission. “To win this quickly is a big surprise to me.”

Kodaira, who shot a tournament-low 63 in the second round, became the sixth straight win at Harbour Town to start from at least three shots behind on the final day. The victory will make him the 27th-ranked player in the world come Monday morning when the newest World Ranking is officially released.

RELATED: The club Satoshi Kodaira used to win the RBC Heritage

He seems to have taken the road less travelled to arrive at this place. But perhaps not. Winning breeds winning, no matter where it occurs.

It’s difficult to win on the PGA Tour. Just ask Phil Mickelson, Rory McIlroy, Jason Day, Paul Casey or Poulter, all who ended victory droughts of various lengths this season despite having levels of talent that would seem to prevent them from such extended streaks. But the truth is, winning on any tour demands excellence.

So Kodaira is a surprise. Then again, he is not.

While Japan’s latest sensation revels in his accomplishment, at the other end of the spectrum sits a talented player like Luke List, who tied for third and still seeks his first victory after 109 PGA Tour starts. He began the final round just a stroke behind Poulter, but his up-and-down day in winds blowing 20-25 miles per hour wasn’t the recipe required for victory.

After a third-round 67, List was asked about his chance to break his maiden. “You hear a lot of greats talking about keep knocking on the door,” said the 33-year-old Vanderbilt graduate. “I feel for me, whether it’s tomorrow or next week, I feel like it’s going to happen. I’m playing too well for it not to. I’m just going to keep that attitude.”

A missed birdie try on the 18th on Sunday left List one stroke out of a playoff, and still searching for PGA Tour win No. 1. (Ryan Young/PGA Tour)

List, who closed with a one-over 72 while battling an illness, had a chance to join the playoff, but a 10-foot birdie putt wouldn’t go down. It was the third time this season he knocked on the door but didn’t bust it down, after a second-place finish at the Honda Classic in March and a T-5 at the CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges last fall.

RELATED: After six straight wins of golf, Ian Poulter finally ran out of gas

What does it take to break through? A key putt at the right time? A bit of luck? Maybe a lot of luck? Timing? The answer for Kodaira was his ball striking. He topped the field by +1.514 in strokes gained/approach-the-green by leading in proximity to the hole, averaging 29 feet, 6 inches—six feet closer than the field average.

A winner of one Web.com Tour title, the 2012 South Georgia Classic, List is still searching for success at the highest level.

“Hopefully next week,” List replied to a question about when his time might come. “I’m getting better each opportunity. And I feel like my game has risen to the point where I expect to contend every week. So it’s going to happen.”

If he maintains this form, you have to think he’s right. But there are no guarantees, even if a player feels ready. Meanwhile, a guy with hopes of a top-10 finish has added an iconic plaid jacket to his wardrobe for winning at Hilton Head.

When Sam Saunders grabbed the early lead at the Genesis Open in February, folks wondered what his grandfather, Arnold Palmer, might say to him. Said Saunders: “He’d say, it’s about time you started winning some tournaments.”

And he expected to win, too. So did Beau Hossler before Poulter pilfered the Houston Open from him. Every good player expects to win. If they didn’t, there really would be no point in competing.

How one gets started isn’t easily prescribed.

Back to Nicklaus, who had an answer for his players on the U.S. Ryder Cup team that lost to Europe at Nicklaus’ Muirfield Village Golf Club in 1987. The Americans continually lost the 18th hole that week, and Nicklaus, for their own good, challenged them to look inside themselves, figure out what works in their games, what doesn’t, and then play to their strengths when they are in contention. Among the players who responded to the advice were Curtis Strange, who won consecutive U.S. Open titles in 1988 and ’89, and the late Payne Stewart, who won three majors, including two U.S. Opens.

Even if his previous wins occurred on the Japan Tour, Satoshi Kodaira had been there, had figured some things out about himself, about what works. And he is there again.

It’s a surprise, but it isn’t.

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