Joohyung Kim Archives - Golf Digest Middle East

LIV Golf aims to awaken sleeping giant Asian Tour

Matt Smith — Wed, 17 Aug 2022 10:50:46 +0000

By GolfDigestME.com
During a press conference in Saudi Arabia earlier this year, Asian Tour commissioner Cho Minn Thant was extolling the virtues of one of his rising stars. He described the player’s career path: Paying his dues on the Asian Development Tour, working his way up to the Asian Tour, then winning an event at age 17, the second-youngest professional champion on that tour.

Cho then noted how the player used golf’s shutdown during the COVID pandemic to refine and raise his game before returning to competition in his homeland, winning two events and the Order of Merit on the Korean Tour. Once play resumed on the Asian Tour, the player won the Singapore International to crack the world’s top 100 ranking. He also claimed another Order of Merit.

“His story,” Cho said, “is very much a story that we’re very proud of.”

The commissioner then made a prediction, telling everybody in the room that day in February to remember the name of the player, still just 19 years old at the time. “He’s going to be a world-beater soon,” he said.

The player’s name? Joohyung Kim, although you may know him as Tom Kim, a nickname he gave himself due to his love of ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’, the popular character in children’s books and TV shows.

And Cho’s prediction? In his 17 worldwide starts in the last six months , Kim produced seven top 10s, including a win earlier this month in North Carolina and a solo second in Thailand in April. On Monday, he became a top 20 player in the world, moving from 21st to 19th.

He’s now 20 years old and Korea’s top male golfer. A world-beater indeed. And an example of the impact the Asian Tour can make on the global game.

This is why LIV Golf has invested $300 million and is supporting the Asian Tour’s International Series. Last week, the International Series was in Singapore and this week they compete at Jeju Island in Korea. With increased prize money and more visibility, it provides the region’s players with a chance to hone their skills against some of golf’s best players.

Just as important, it’s a pathway to unlocking the Asian golf market.

According to a 2018 Singapore Golf Industry report utilising data from the R&A, there were 4,570 golf facilities in Asia and the Middle East to service 4.5 billion people. That’s an average of 974,000 people for each facility. Compare that to the established markets of North America (30,000 average) or Europe (102,000 average).

The number of registered golfers also indicate the large opportunity for expansion. In Thailand, it’s 22,016 among a population of 70 million (0.02 per cent). In Saudi Arabia, it’s 2,680 among a population of 34 million (0.008 per cent). In Indonesia, it’s 14,084 among a population of 270 million (0.005 per cent). These are all places that host Asian Tour events.

ROOM TO GROW

The eight countries in Asia and the Middle East hosting Asian Tour events this season, and the number of registered golfers in each. (Data from R&A Participation Report 2021)

COUNTRY, POPULATION, REGISTERED GOLFERS
India, 1.36 billion, 100,000
Indonesia, 270 million, 14,084
Japan, 126 million, 629,224
South Korea, 51 million, 214,000
Saudi Arabia, 34.2 million, 2,680
Singapore, 5.7 million, 40,000
Chinese Taipei, 23.8 million, 61,500
Thailand, 70 million, 22,016

“That’s 4.5 billion people sitting there with an opportunity for the game of golf to grow,” LIV Golf Commissioner and CEO Greg Norman said.

His interest in Asia and the Middle East didn’t just start with LIV Golf.

While still establishing himself as a professional golfer, he competed in several tournaments in Asia. In fact, the second of his 91 career wins came in 1977 at the Kuzuha International in Osaka in his first appearance in Japan. He was just 22 at the time.

In the early 1990s, he played in an exhibition match in China. The memory of that trip and the promise of an emerging golf country stayed with him.

His Golf Course Design portfolio includes 17 courses in Asia, and his focus lately has been on Vietnam. He serves in an advisory role as Vietnam’s Tourism Ambassador to help promote the game. He also built the first grass golf course in Jordan, and built a golf course in Oman.

And now there’s LIV Golf and its desire to enhance the game globally. Working with the Asian Tour and supporting the International Series is a key component of the overall mission. He calls it an “exciting new journey”.

“When you recognise these opportunities of the sleeping giant that’s sitting out there, the investment opportunities as a partner to come in and get involved with the Asian Tour and to launch what we have behind us, the International Series, is what I’m going back to in the beginning,” Norman said. “It’s a great honour.”

The support also is appreciated by the Asian Tour, especially after the challenges of the pandemic. The Asian Tour’s reach across multiple countries and the various protocols involved slowed its return to competition. It took nearly 20 months to resume play.

“We’re a young organisation,” Cho said. “We were trending upward before the COVID pandemic hit, and then it was disastrous for us for a year-and-a-half.

“But through a crisis, there’s always an opportunity. We worked with Greg and the team to work on how we would come back, how we would come back stronger and reach this arrangement with LIV Golf, which is going to propel us to new heights.”

Reaching those heights starts by exposing youngsters to the game of golf. The Asian Tour’s most recent donation was a $25,000 cheque to the Singapore Golf Association, specifically to support its grassroots and junior programmes. Among the initiatives are a junior development program for players between six and 12 years old called the SGA Future Squad.

Singapore already is making inroads on the global stage. James Leow tied for 31st as the low amateur among the four who played the International Series Singapore. In 2019, he won the men’s individual gold medal at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, his country’s first gold in golf in 30 years. He recently completed his senior season at Arizona State.

At age 25, he’s five years older than Tom Kim, so he has some catching up to do. Of course, that goes for all of golf in Asia. There are plenty of people out there, plenty of young boys and girls with natural athletic ability, curious minds and a desire to improve. Will they get the opportunity to play golf, to learn new skills, perhaps to even one day become a world-beater?

According to Norman, the objectives for the Asian Tour and LIV Golf involve much more than determining a final-round leaderboard. It’s making golf accessible to all – and particularly the young. “We have to reach down to that younger generation … down to the 12-13 and 10-year-old kids,” Norman said. “Pluck them up here and just allow them to have the opportunity of seeing golf in a different light.”

The opportunity came for Kim. Now he’s a top 20 player in the world. But he hasn’t forgotten his roots. “Asian Tour is the start,” he said. “This is the pathway to the big stage.”

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PGA Tour: Joohyung ‘Tom’ Kim is on the express line to stardom after Wyndham win

Golf Digest Middle East — Mon, 08 Aug 2022 11:28:05 +0000

By Shane Ryan
Joohyung Kim’s nickname — “Tom” — is a reference to Thomas the Tank Engine, the character from the famous British children’s book who doesn’t possess the strength or pedigree of the mightier locomotives but finds himself overachieving in the railyard.

This, we’re afraid to report, is a wholly inapt and unacceptable metaphor for Tom Kim. Tom Kim is not a scrappy machine grinding his way up a hill. Tom Kim is a bullet train, and if his win at the Wyndham Championship on Sunday is the ascent that brings him to the attention of the general public for the first time, you get the sense that it is not nearly the most impressive peak he’s going to summit in his career. Far from a “little engine that could” character, what we’ve just seen is the coming-out party of a well-oiled iron horse, prepared for a kind of greatness that could come so fast that it makes us dizzy.

There are almost too many superlatives to attach to Kim’s remarkable five-shot win at Sedgefield Country Club after posting a 20-under 260 total. So decide, if you will, which one drops your jaw the fastest

At 20, he’s the second-youngest winner on the PGA Tour since 1932, trailing only Jordan Spieth.
He’s the first player born in the 2000s to win on tour.
He’s the first player to make quadruple bogey on the first hole and go on to win the tournament (since 1983, when hole-by-hole stats were first kept), and only the fifth player to ever make a quad and win.
With a Sunday 61 that included an absurd 27 on the front nine, he posted the fifth-lowest final-round score by a winner since 1983 and became the first pro to pull off the Sunday 61 and win since Rory McIlroy at the 2019 RBC Canadian Open.
Since he only had special temporary status coming in to Greensboro, he needed to win outright to make the playoffs — no other outcome would get him full status and an entry into next week’s first leg in Memphis — and he did it.
He accomplished it all while playing his fifth straight week, and in brutally hot, humid weather. (Afterward, Kim joked that while he was thrilled to make the playoffs, he had been excited to spend a week at home and wasn’t over the moon to be heading to a location, Memphis, that might be even hotter than North Carolina.)
It’s an incredible series of facts, but somehow it still pales to how Kim looked on the actual course. The son of a South Korean pro, Kim has lived in five different countries and speaks three languages. Like Spieth and Collin Morikawa, he carries himself with a poise belying his years. His celebration when pouring in his par on the 18th hole, a subtle fist pump, broadcast a story not of a wild upstart victor, but of someone who fully expected to be there.

And, it turns out, he did.

“I’ve expected so much of myself and so does my team, we expect the highest,” Kim said. “And it hasn’t been the easiest. It might look easy for a lot of people, but it’s a lot of work behind the scenes. This is just a start for me and I still have so much I want to accomplish. I bought the car, we bought the car, we just need to drive it, so hopefully I keep pushing that pedal.”

Kim’s temperament reads friendly, and he calls himself a joker among his team, but acknowledged that he’s mature for his 20 years. He’s the kind of person who can talk about his immense work ethic in one breath, then describe his parents’ logistical duties in service of his career as a “pain” with an easy laugh.

He’s willful, too — he gave himself the nickname “Thomas” as a child because he was a fan of the show, but also because he didn’t accept that his parents had the full authority to name him. (He nearly went with “Buzz Lightyear,” and is grateful today that he decided against it.)

Tom Kim. Dylan Buell

Golf is in his blood. His father Chang-ik Kim is a former tour pro who became a instructor, and Tom, whose English is fluent, spent parts of his formative years in places such as Australia, the Philippines, and Thailand.

“I didn’t have the most financial comfort when I was younger, so I’m just glad that I can support them now and they can just travel with me,” he said of his parents. “I can’t say exactly one thing that they’ve sacrificed. They’ve sacrificed so much for me. I’m just really glad that I can give this back to them.”

With his 27 on the front nine, in which he made birdie or eagle on all but two holes, he leeched the drama out of the final regular-season event of the 2021-22 PGA Tour season, and turned Saturday’s crowded leaderboard into a Sunday runaway. Yet this performance didn’t come out of nowhere — he’s been on the winning scent all summer, where after dominating the order of merit on the Asian Tour and the Korean Tour since 2021, he turned in a third-place finish at the Scottish Open, and started his American career with a 23rd-place showing at the US Open before notching his first PGA Tour top-10 last week at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.

It certainly didn’t seem that he’d continue his ridiculous trajectory at the Wyndham. Not at least after he played his first hole. On Thursday, he posted an 8 to get things started without even taking a penalty stroke. It’s a testament to the red-hot state of his game that he’d almost fought back to even at the turn and finished the day with a 67.

A second-round 64 sent him toward the top of the leaderboard. Then on Sunday afternoon, he made his big move, draining putts of 20 feet, 24 feet, 12 feet, seven feet, and 18 feet in a five-hole stretch from 2 through 6 that he played in six-under. Two more birdies to finish the front nine gave him a four-shot lead, and though he cooled off with a bogey on No. 10, he played well enough on the back nine to hold off competitors Sungjae Im, John Huh and Russell Henley, none of whom ever really got close.

Kim clinched his PGA Tour status for next season with last week’s result — earning enough FedEx Cup points as a “non-member” — and that alleviated the pressure he felt at the Wyndham. Still, the pressure returned on the back nine, and despite the appearance of relative calm, his heart was pounding.

“I didn’t know golf could be this stressful,” he told CBS’ Amanda Renner.

Tom Kim. Icon Sportswire

In his post-round press conference, Kim spoke about Michael Jordan and how he felt a certain connection in the air with this week’s tournament in Jordan’s native North Carolina.

“I’ve just been a big fan of people who have accomplished so much in their career. I don’t know any of them personally, but I’m a huge fan, just that Mamba mentality,” he said. “And I watched ‘The Last Dance’ probably 10 times just because there’s so many great quotes by him and there’s a reason why he was the best basketball player. Once it was confirmed this week he was from North Carolina and to win somewhere where he’s from, it’s an honour. He’s not going to know it, but like for me, it’s a little special thing in my heart. There’s so many great quotes by him.”

You wonder, though, if Jordan will in fact, know him, and if they have more in common than Kim might think. If nothing else, we know that Jordan is a fan of the team events, and along with earning his status and a spot in the Masters next year, Kim has put himself in a great spot to make the Presidents Cup team; International captain Trevor Immelman has already spoken to him. There’s a chance Kim might cross paths with Jordan in Charlotte.

For Im, who finished tied for second, the day was still a success, and a late surge to reach 15-under saw him rise from 15th to 10th in the FedEx Cup standings, sneaking into the final spot in the Comcast Business Tour Top 10 and earning a $1 million bonus. (Hideki Matsuyama, who opted not to attend the Wyndham, was bumped out by just 35 points.)

Given the Wyndham’s usual spot on the tour calendar as the Last Chance Saloon for pros to earn their spots in the FedEx Cup Playoffs, Sunday came with the attendant Top 125 bubble drama. Kim and Max McGreevy were the two players who started outside the bubble (in Kim’s case, he was technically inside, but needed the outright win to make the playoffs), and Austin Smotherman (who missed the cut in brutal fashion) and Matt Wallace were the two unlucky souls to fall out. Rickie Fowler, who along with Wallace and Smotherman missed the cut on Friday, barely hung on to the 125th spot, and will make the trip to Memphis next week.

The final in-and-out tallies never quite capture the full theatre of Wyndham Sunday, and that remained the case this year. Justin Lower seemed to have a two-putt to retain his PGA Tour card on the 18th green, and three-putted in gut-wrenching fashion. Doc Redman needed a great round to break into the top 125, and nearly got it, but in the end his 64 wasn’t good enough.

Even outside Greensboro, Tom Kim’s win had the domino effect of knocking four players out of the Korn Ferry Tour Finals and making their careers much harder than they seemed just hours earlier. With every missed putt, with every unpredictable surge, the reverberations were felt throughout the entire professional golf landscape, but it was the 20-year-old phenomenon Kim who was responsible for the biggest shockwaves. There will be more to come.

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PGA Tour update: Tom Kim’s unreal bounce back, a journeyman’s career low and gut-check time for Rickie Fowler

Matt Smith — Fri, 05 Aug 2022 10:47:36 +0000

Rickie Fowler. Mike Mulholland

By Dan Rapaport
The first day of the post-lawsuit PGA Tour played out in hot and steamy Greensboro, North Carolina, where players have one final opportunity to bank some FedEx Cup points — and, for some, secure their playing privileges for next year — before the playoffs begin next week. This week’s field is somewhat light on star power, with most of the big boys still enjoying an extended break after the Open Championship and before the three-event sprint ending at the Tour Championship, but there’s always plenty of drama around the 125th-place bubble during Wyndham week. Finish inside the top 125 and you’re all set for next year, when purses will increase considerably. Finish outside it, and you’ve got some work to do.

Here are three takeaways from Thursday at Sedgefield Country Club:

The Tom Kim train rolls on

Joohyung Kim is the third player on record to make a quad or worse on the first hole and finish the round under par. pic.twitter.com/XdoucjzDcx

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 4, 2022

The mediocre train pun there — that’s a reference to Thomas the Tank Engine. Why do we care about Thomas the Tank Engine? Tom Kim. That’s why. Officially listed on leaderboards as Joohyung Kim, the 20-year-old South Korean goes by Tom because he liked Thomas the Tank Engine as a kid. Kim has chugged up the world rankings in the last eight months. He began 2022 outside the top 130 but won his first event of the year on the Asian Tour and continued solid play on that circuit got him into the US Open. He finished a respectable 23rd that week and followed it with a solo third against a stacked field at the Genesis Scottish Open. He made his next two cuts, including at the Open Championship, before a final-round 63 and a solo seventh at last week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic saw him rise to world No. 34 — and, more importantly, all but lock up his PGA Tour card for 2022-23 through non-member points. There is no one on Earth who is both younger than Kim and ranked higher than him.

It’s been a hectic stretch in a foreign country, and after he quadruple-bogeyed his first hole of the day on Thursday, you’d forgive him for mailing it in and calling it a year. But he has too much energy to go down so easily. Kim played his final 17 holes in seven-under to post a most impressive three-under 67. Per the PGA Tour, he is just the third player on record to start his round with a quad and still shoot under par.

“I was laughing because it was the first hole of the day and it was probably the worst start I’ve ever had in my career so far,” Kim said. “All I could do was laugh because just some shots I hit there was pretty awful. But I don’t know, for some reason I felt calm. It was one bad hole and I just told myself, you know what, I can still get this, I can still shoot under par today and somehow I did, yeah.”

A career-low round for a journeyman

Odds are, you would not recognise John Huh if he walked by you. He’s won on the PGA Tour, but it was an opposite-field event and it happened more than a decade ago. Huh has never cracked the top 60 of the world and currently sits at No. 248. But John Huh has quietly made over $10 million in his PGA Tour career, and this week marks his 266th start. He is, by any reasonable definition, a journeyman. And this start is as important as any, as he entered the week ranked 120th in the standings, dangerously close to that 125 threshold.

Good time, then, to play the best round of his career. The 32-year-old went out in 29 en route to a nine-under 61, which has him sitting on a two-shot lead over Sungjae Im. He wasn’t expecting this.

“I’m actually surprised I’m at the top of the leaderboard, yeah, to be quite honest with you,” Huh said. “I didn’t really feel my game was there, but it’s one of those days where I took advantage of some good shots and good breaks, I think.”

Rickie Fowler’s in danger of missing the post-season again

The pressure is on.@RickieFowler sits one spot outside the Playoffs at projected No. 126 in the #FedExCup rankings, down 3 from No. 123. pic.twitter.com/tRv7t5zjdv

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 4, 2022

Prior to last season, Rickie Fowler had made the FedEx Cup Playoffs every season in which he’s been a PGA Tour member. That streak ended last year, and that was supposed to be the low point of a prolonged slump that has run concerningly long. The early signs this season were positive — he hung around the lead in his second start of the wraparound campaign, finishing with a T-3 at the CJ Cup at the Summit Club, but he has failed to post even one top-20 finish in 18 starts since.

As such, he entered this week at 123rd in the standings — which have been adjusted to not include guys now playing on the LIV Golf series — and needs to make the cut to get into the playoffs. He’ll still have a card next year by way of his 2015 Players Championship victory but missing the playoffs two years in a row would be a pretty brutal pill to swallow.

It could well happen. A week after missing the Rocket Mortgage classic cut by six, Fowler opened the Wyndham with a one-over 71 that has him outside the top 100 heading into Friday. It’s gut check time — if he’s to salvage a respectable season, he absolutely needs to shoot something solid. Which is one tough ask given the state of his game.

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UPDATED: Dubai-based Indian Shiv Kapur stays in touch at historic Asian Golf International Series England with LIV Golf places up for grabs

Matt Smith — Sat, 04 Jun 2022 05:22:41 +0000

By Matt Smith
Dubai-based Indian Shiv Kapur kept up his challenge at the Asian Tour International Series England at Slaley Hall on Friday, with a second-round 70 that took him to five-under for the tournament, one off the clubhouse lead held by South African Justin Harding and South Korea’s Joohyung Kim.

Harding shot a tremendous 66 in difficult conditions just outside Newcastle in a historic event — marking the Asian Tour’s first ever tournament in the UK.

As the golfers push for glory and a slice of the $2 million purse, there is also the added incentive of the top five golfers booking a place at next week’s money-spinning LIV Golf Individual Series opener at Centurion Club, just outside London.

Before the afternoon starters headed out, Kapur was tied-third alongside Zimbabwean Scott Vincent — who arrived in Newcastle after a 24-hour journey from Japan, without his clubs — and Japan’s Kosuke Hamamoto. While Kapur and co looked on from the clubhouse, no one could catch Harding and Joohyung, with South African Neil Schietekat, Thai pair Kosuke Hamamoto and Kasidit Lepkurte, and Chang Wei-lun from Chinese Taipei joining Kapur on one-under ahead of the third round.

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Asian Tour: Stellar field for landmark tournament in England

Matt Smith — Wed, 18 May 2022 11:10:28 +0000

By Matt Smith
Sihwan Kim, the No. 1 golfer on the Asian Tour, heads up.a stellar field for the landmark at next month’s International Series England.

South Korean Joohyung Kim, last season’s No. 1, former US Open champion Graeme McDowell and Thailand’s 15-year-old wonderkid Ratchanon “TK” Chantananuwat and the current top 10 in the Asian Tour rankings will compete in the $2 million tournament – which will take place at Slaley Hall Hotel, Spa & Golf Resort, near Newcastle, from June 2-5.

The ground-breaking event will mark the first time the Asian Tour has sanctioned a tournament in the UK and the exciting opportunity will mean a full turnout of the Tour’s membership – for what will be the ninth event of the 2022-23 season and the second International Series event.

Sihwan is leading the way on the Tour at the moment thanks to two victories for the American — including at the first-ever International Series event, played in Thailand in March — and has earned close to half a million dollars, but Slaley Hall will also see a wealth of other in-form players competing.

Korean Bio Kim, who is second on the Merit list, and third-ranked Phachara Khongwatmai from Thailand will compete having both recently recorded their first wins on the Asian Tour, following its restart in November last year after a two-year COVID-19 enforced break.

And Joohyung Kim, who at 19 years of age became the second youngest winner of the Merit title in January, has picked up where he left off from last season with top-10 finishes in his last three events to sit in fourth place on the rankings. Joohyung and Bio will make their way over to the UK after competing in this week’s US PGA Championship in Oklahoma. Thailand’s Sadom Kaewkanjana and South Africa’s Justin Harding, also in action at the season’s second Major Championship, will also be making the trip across the Atlantic.

Thailand’s Jazz Janewattananond, the 2019 Merit champion and six-time winner on Tour, Malaysian Gavin Green, the 2017 No. 1, and Australian Scott Hend – the most successful international player on the Tour with 10 victories and the 2016 Merit list winner will also be looking for strong performances in the North of England.

As will Chinese-Taipei’s Chan Shih-chang, a two-time winner on the Tour since last year’s restart, and Thailand’s Nitithorn Thippong, also a winner this season.

“The International Series England is a landmark event for the Asian Tour which provides our members with a great opportunity to compete internationally in an exciting, new location,” said Cho Minn Thant, Commissioner & CEO, Asian Tour.

“An incredibly strong field with assemble for the tournament, which is a reflection of the appetite our members have for the International Series and will also allow us to showcase the Asian Tour’s depth in world-class talent to European fans. We have also received enormous interest from international players wanting to be part of the Asian Tour having seen our steady growth over the past few months.”

A host of Asian Tour legends will be in attendance, in particular Thailand’s Thaworn Wiratchant – the winner of a record 18 Asian Tour titles – and India’s Jeev Milkha Singh, who like Thaworn, has claimed two Merit list titles.

In addition, a number of high-profile players have been extended invites including McDowell, the 2010 US Open champion, New Zealand’s Michael Campbell, who claimed the US Open in 2005, England’s Lee Slattery, Wu Ashun from China, Jovan Rebula from South Africa, Americans Peter Uihlein and Andy Ogletree, both former winners of the US Amateur Championship, and rising Australian stars Blake Windred and Louis Dobbelaar.

Some of the games’ leading amateurs have been invited, most noticeably Ratchanon, who has taken the Tour by storm with some brilliant performances, including winning the Trust Golf Asian Mixed Cup in Thailand in April to become the youngest male player to win on one of the game’s major Tours.

Exciting young amateurs England’s John Gough, the reigning English Amateur Champion, and Hong Kong’s Taichi Kho will also play.

The event also features twelve dedicated spots for professionals from the United Kingdom, which include various rising stars such as Sam Broadhurst, son of six-time European Tour winner and Ryder Cup player Paul Broadhurst, as well as seasoned professionals such as Welshman Stuart Manley.

The International Series England is promoted by LIV Golf and will be followed by eight more International Series events this season.

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Asian Tour suddenly sees world as its oyster

Kent Gray — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 03:18:39 +0000

Asian Tour chief Cho Minn Thant and the circuit’s No.1 ranked player, Joohyung Kim, flank Greg Norman at the International Series launch. Photos by James Farrell

By Kent Gray
With England locked and loaded and the United States firmly on the drawing board, the message is crystal clear: the Asian Tour suddenly sees all and every corner of the golf world as its oyster.

That much became blatantly obvious at the unveiling of the tour’s new marquee brand on the not so subtle side-lines of the PIF Saudi International last month -– even if Greg Norman was at pains to insists “we’re not in this for a fight”.

The LIV Golf CEO joined Asian Tour supremo Cho Minn Thant and the circuit’s freshly minted Order-of-Merit champion Joohyung Kim to herald the arrival of ‘The International Series’, 10 marquee events being bankrolled by LIV Golf to the tune of $300 million over the next decade.

In attendance at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club were a small travelling press corp, a larger international media audience logged in virtually and a palpable sense of intrigue surrounding LIV Golf’s next move beyond its investment in the OWGR-sanctioned Asian Tour.

By announcing that its shiny new series will visit The Centurion Club on the northern outskirts of London and the Middle East twice – i.e. traditional DP World Tour territory – the Asian Tour’s intentions are clear at the very least.

Fiscally emboldened by its new Saudi-backed strategic partner, the Asian Tour has shed all historical insecurities and any fear of straying beyond golf’s long-since blurred continental boundaries. The olive branch to the DP World Tour and PGA Tour remains extended but knowing it is likely striking out on its own, the Asian Tour delivered its first “Game on” mission statement.

“Obviously there’s no boundaries anymore in the world of golf,” Thant, the Asian Tour’s dual CEO and Commissioner, said before focusing specifically on the June 9-12 event in England.

“…And yes, it comes as a surprise to many of us in this room, but it’s basically part of our strategy to make the Asian Tour more of a global tour. We have members from all over the world, 25 different nationalities playing on the Asian Tour. It’s not just for Asians. It’s not just in Asia, and we will be playing in other destinations outside such as the Middle East.”

As Lee Westwood mentioned in a media conference the following day, the Asian Tour’s competitors surely can’t have been broadsided by the Centurion surprise.

“Now that the Asian Tour has this backing, it appears to me like they’re just doing what the PGA Tour and the European Tour have been doing the last 25 years,” said the Englishman, an eight time winner in Asia.

Thant went on to defend the Asian Tour’s expansionist strategy and a new-found voice triggered by one of the biggest investment deals in golf history.

“We’ve been vilified as bad boys in the press over the last few months, and I really think it’s unjustified,” Thant said. “Any tour…has a responsibility to its membership to look at sponsorship and partnership opportunities to improve the tour. Likewise the European Tour worked with DP World to title sponsor that tour. I don’t see us working with LIV Golf Investments or any other promoter, any other sponsor throughout the course of the season as a bad thing.

“I’m out here to increase the number of playing opportunities for our members. I’m here to increase the amount of prize money that’s on offer. I’m here to improve the awareness and the experience for the fans of golf in Asia, and I think this is exactly what we’re doing.”

With the 10 International Series events to be broadcast live, the Asian Tour hopes to drive deeper engagement with fans, attract new commercial interest and to “help stabilise professional golf following a sustained period of worldwide disruption and uncertainty.”

“We are on the threshold of a new era for Asian golf,” Thant continued.“The International Series is a new upper-tier of elite events, the likes of which the region has not seen before, that will mark the start of a phenomenal period of growth for the Asian Tour.”

That growth, according to Norman, is long overdue.

“Healthy competition is a great thing, right?” the former world No.1 said.

“So as long as we do that in a respectful, healthy way, everybody is going to be a benefactor. Every bit of the ecosystem for the game of golf will be the benefactor. Every institution should be embracing this new opportunity of unlocking the lost opportunity that’s been left sitting there for decades and decades and decades.”

Those assurances predictably continue to fall on deaf ears as the U.S. and UK media go into bat for golf’s traditional superpower tours in the face of what many see as a hostile competitor. Norman, believes the ire directed towards LIV Golf, which itself is bankrolled by Saudi’s Public Investment Fund, is misplaced.

“Well, we’re not in this for a fight. We’re in this for the good of the game,” Norman said.

“It’s disappointing to be honest, personally disappointing to see some of the attacks that have been taking place unwarrantedly. Any time you go into — if you pre-judge anybody without knowing the facts, then shame on you, to be honest with you.”

Norman was asked what return LIV Golf hoped for out of its $300 million investment, a thinly veiled attempt by an interviewer to extract more info on the rumoured LIV league.

“In a nutshell, what have we really done? We’ve identified a new opportunity out of a lost opportunity, and I mean that in all sincerity. We identify virgin space for lost opportunities or people overlooked for decades and decades and decades. The lost opportunity people should be embracing, other institutions should be embracing.

“We are very, very respectful and will always be open, and I’m always going to be a healthy, friendly competitor, and that’s important to know, because the market is huge and it’s open for everybody, and we’re going to have these open pathways.

“From LIV Golf Investments, this is just the start for us. The 10-event series we’ll be starting off is just the beginning. It’s the beginning of an exciting new journey.”

Another reporter jumped on Norman’s repeated attempts to position LIV Golf, and by association the Asian Tour, as friendly competitors, even if the PGA-DP World Tour alliance clearly don’t see it that way.

“What is LIV Golf Investments doing that you are scared of? Why do you have to have these attacks to the level they do?” Norman posed in response.

“Understand the fact that we have always and continued to be very collaborative and cooperative with any of the institutions right across the board. We want to work together side by side.

“I would encourage them [The PGA and DP World Tour alliance] to sit back and say, maybe it’s a good time to sit down and understand if we can work side by side.”

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Why a pair of Asian Tour teens deserve your attention at this week’s Saudi International

Kent Gray — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 05:14:42 +0000

Freshly-minted Asian Tour Order of Merit champion Joohyung Kim.

Major champions and Ryder Cup stars abound in the star-studded field for this week’s 4th Saudi International but watch for a pair of preciously talented teens at the Asian Tour’s $5 million season-opener.

By Kent Gray
The same weekend Hideki Matsuyama was enriching his reputation as the Emperor of Asian golf with a walk-off, extra-time eagle to win the Sony Open in Hawaii, the coronation of the continent’s next gen was quietly taking place in Singapore.

The rise and rise of Joohyung Kim continued apace at the Singapore International as the 19-year-old Korean captured his second Asian Tour title with a gritty playoff birdie. Solo third at tricky Tanah Merah Country Club, meanwhile, was Thai phenom Ratchanon Chantananuwat, a 14-year-old who humbly exudes the self-belief of a grizzled tour veteran.

Matsuyama, still only 29 himself, understandably hogged the headlines with his eighth PGA Tour title and a second since bringing great honour to Japan by winning the 2021 Masters. In a similar vein, the rock star PGA and DP World Tour players headed to King Abdullah Economic City will undoubtedly draw the majority of attention as the 4th PIF Saudi International powered by SoftBank Investment Advisers plays out from Feb. 3-6.

But don’t be surprised to see the likes of Kim and Chantananuwat feature at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club. The occasion – the Asian Tour’s $5 million 2022 season opener with a best in circuit history field including the likes of Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott and Olympic champion Xander Schauffele- could and probably should get the better of the teens.

Discount the lesser known Asian Tour players at your peril, though. Kim will arrive in the Kingdom as the freshly-minted Asian Tour No.1 after a pandemic disrupted season of dizzying consistency. In the eight events spanning the Hong Kong Open of January 2020 and SMBC Singapore Open of January 2022, the Seoul pro rattled off results of T18, 4th, 4th, T84 (for a sole missed cut), T2, T7, 1st and T2.

In between times, Kim twice won on the Korean PGA Tour and become the youngest winner of his home circuit’s Order of Merit title with a swing so compact you could almost capture it in a bottle. Indeed, Kim is an iron striker of rare ability which perhaps over emphasises the only noticeable fallibility in his game in recent months – the odd putt missed from short range. When you hit it so close so often, the putter invariably can’t cooperate every time.

Kim has secured a start in the PGA Tour’s Puerto Rico Open in early March but will be focused on footing it with the superstars in Saudi first and maintaining his steady rise up the world rankings – to a career best 79 after the Singapore Open. He sprung to prominence by capturing the Panasonic Indian Open in 2019 in just this third Asian Tour start after winning a “battlefield” promotion to the main circuit following three Asian Development Tour wins. It made him the second youngest player to win on the Asian Tour at 17 years and 149 days; countryman Seungyul Noh bettered that by six days when he captured the 2008 Midea China Classic.

“It’s all happening really fast, you know,” said Kim after his Singapore Int. triumph.

“Winning the Korean Order of Merit [was] definitely a goal of mine last year and [I’m] very fortunate to achieve it. Obviously very fortunate [now] to have that second win. It’s been a while since I won on the Asian Tour with COVID and stuff so very pleased and hopefully we can get a lot more…”

If the Asian Tour is proud of Kim’s ascension, it is positively giddy with anticipation about Chantananuwat’s emergence. And why not.

Chantananuwat,
just 14, has made four successive Asian Tour cuts.

Nicknamed ‘TK’ (the initials of his parents including father and caddie Tara), Chantananuwat gave hint of his ability by finishing T15 and T30 in the Asian Tour’s Phuket double-header at Blue Canyon and Laguna Phuket before Christmas. He played the weekend at Blue Canyon 11 under par after becoming the third youngest player to make the cut (on the number) in an Asian Tour event. As impressive as that was in home conditions, it was another matter altogether teeing it up in his first professional event on foreign soil at the Singapore International early last month. Unfazed despite again suffering from heat stroke in the early rounds, Chantananuwat held the lead at the turn in both the third and final rounds and joined only Kim and runner-up Rattanon Wannasrichan in red figures after a devilishly tough week around the windswept Tampines layout at Tanah Merah.

Had he not played the back nine on Saturday in a frustrating 41 strokes, history could easily record the Thai teen as the youngest ever winner of a OWGR event and even a main tour event, records respectively set by Dubai’s own Josh Hill (15 years, 6 months, 27 days) in the MENA Tour’s Al Ain Open in 2019, and by Atthaya Thitkul who won the LETs 2017 Thailand Open at 14 years, 4 months and 19 days.

A week later Chantananuwat was at it again, sensationally outscoring playing partner and tournament drawcard Paul Casey 68 to 76 on a challenging Thursday on the Serapong course at Sentosa. The 270 yard three-wood he shaped into the water-hugged par-5 7th in that opening round, before coolly draining a downhill right to left putt for eagle from 12-foot, was a thing of beauty.

“I’m looking forward to trying to catch him over the weekend,” said Casey, pointing towards Chantananuwat after the teen had made his fourth successive cut with rounds of 68-74 to be two shots to the good of the 15-time DP World Tour winner and five-time Ryder Cupper through 36 holes.

“I’m just going to say he’s way ahead of me when I was 14. He’s got a great future.”

Most amateurs are happy to tee it up in professional events let alone survive the weekend. But Chantananuwat is different, a by-product of an upbringing that has included golf since the age of 3½.

After the genuine disappointment of letting an unlikely victory slip at Tanah Merah, he set his sights on winning at Sentosa and, as a minimum, on claiming one of the four 150th Open Championship spots on offer at the season finale (Kim achieved that with his joint runner-up finish, amends for being unable to play last year’s Open at Royal St. George’s via the same qualifying route due to COVID-19 travel restrictions). At 14, it’s not about experience gathering for Chantananuwat. It’s already about winning and on initial inspection, he seems to have the game to match the ambition. Goodness knows what he will achieve when he physically matures.

“When I’m in the zone, I think — all I see is my ball and the hole and what’s in between. I just go on feel,” Chantananuwat said. “Sometimes my swing could look one way and I still hit it, like, really good because sometimes I [can] compensate.”

The challenge now for everyone responsible for Chantananuwat’s development is to ensure burnout is avoided. Returning to lessons at Shrewsbury International School in Bangkok will ice the increasingly high expectations somewhat but it’s clear he’s on a carefully choreographed career path.

“I’m only at this stage, really fast at 14, because my Dad has had really high expectations and whenever I accomplish something he just moves on to the next thing. He has goals that other kids or parents don’t even think of,” Chantananuwat said.

“The only thing he believes in is hitting balls,” the teen continued with a wry smile. “Golf, the more you practice, the better you get and the luckier you get. The harder you practice, you get rewarded. Maybe it’s not just 10 good shots in a row but it’s a kick off the fringe, like really close to the hole. That’s what hard work gets you.”

Chantananuwat was unable to secure his ticket to St Andrews, eventually settling for a share of 34th place at Sentosa, 14 strokes behind eventual winner Sadom Kaewkanjana who is another Thai on a tear. But the way he negotiated the final four events of the 2020-21-22 season, don’t be surprised if the kid becomes a familiar name on major championship leaderboards in the not too distant future.

Before then, count on Chantananuwat repaying the special invitee favour at the beginning of a new era for the Asian Tour with another confident display in Saudi, notwithstanding the reputations of the superstars surrounding him on the range. Belief breeds confidence and in his case, confidence can seemingly trump inexperience.

After all the glitz and glamour of the Asian Tour’s new “flagship” Saudi International, and perhaps after a bit of catch-up school work, Chantananuwat shapes as a future standard bearer for circuit emboldened by a well-documented $200 million Saudi investment. Will he or Kim become the next Matsuyama? It’s far too early to call. But the future with players the ilk of the Korean and Thai teens looks bright.

The PGA and DP World Tour stars will come and go but at least the Asian production line is whirring back into life after a 20-month pandemic enforced shutdown. It’s clear Kim and Chantananuwat are already up and running, forcing all those ancient 20 and 30-somethings on tour to lift their games. And that, for all the naysayers, is growing the game in a region determined to become a giant finally awoken.

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Sadom sensational in Singapore as Kim captures Asian Tour Order of Merit title

Kent Gray — Sun, 23 Jan 2022 09:02:03 +0000

Photos: Paul Lakatos/Asian Tour

By Kent Gray
Sadom Kaewkanjana clearly missed the memo about golf being a difficult game. Perhaps it’s no surprise given he was purposely left off the mail bemoaning the curse of slow play too.

The ever-smiling Thai capped a ridiculously brilliant 10-month run by cantering to victory, almost literally, in the Asian Tour’s season-ending SMBC Singapore Open on Sunday.

A closing 69 at Sentosa Golf Club saw Kaewkanjana finish -13, three strokes clear of Japan’s Yuto Katsuragawa and Joohyung Kim, the 19-year-old Korean who won last week’s Singapore International and wrapped up the Asian Tour Order of Merit title with another standout Sunday.

The final day of the Asian Tour’s elongated 2020-21 season, which paradoxically featured the SMBC Singapore Open twice in its limited eight tournament schedule and finished on Jan. 23, 2002 after spanning a smidgeon over three years due to the pandemic, clearly belonged to Kaewkanjana though.

A $225,000 payday for his second Asian Tour triumph was only the start of the biggest day of a career on a sharp ascent. Kaewkanjana also snared the first of four spots on offer for the 150th Open Championship at the Home of Golf in July – a wondrous opportunity money simply can’t buy. Kim, Katsuragawa and Korean-American Sihwan Kim snared the other coveted starts at St. Andrews.

Open Championship bound (from L to R) Yuto Katsuragawa, Sadom Kaewkanjana, Sihwan Kim and Joohyung Kim.

It will be a well-earned first major championship start for Kaewkanjana (presuming he doesn’t qualify for the first three majors of 2022) who has incredibly won five of his last 10 starts, including three wins on the All Thailand Golf Tour (ATGT) in little more than a month at the tail end of 2021. Indeed, his results since March last year are the stuff of golfing dreams: 2nd, 8th, Win, Win, 2nd, 2nd, Win, 2nd (and since the Asian Tour’s resumption) 2nd, 5th, 24th and Win. It has seen the 23-year-old rise 595 spots up the world rankings to a career-high position of 148th.

It seems Kaewkanjana has been in a hurry ever since he graduated to the Asian Tour via Q-School in 2019. He duly went on to win his very first start on the main tour at the Bangabandhu Cup Golf Open in Bangladesh that April – a graduation record.

The best bit about all the success is Kaewkanjana’s pace of play. His silky putting stroke is noteworthy but not as much as his ability to draw a club, pick a target and pull the trigger in roughly the same amount of time most players spend studying the wind and calculating the distance to be negotiated.

It’s refreshingly brisk and inevitably accompanied with a smile. And why not. Golf is a simple game the way Kaewkanjana is playing it as those set to spectate the $5 million Saudi International, the Asian Tour’s new 2022-23 season opener from Feb-3-6, will likely discover.

Kaewkanjana went bogey-free over the final 38 holes at Sentosa Golf Club.

“I’m very excited and very happy to win this tournament,” Kaewkanjana said before revealing the well-hidden truth about trying to close out one of the most prestigious tournaments on the Asian Tour. He’d started the final round tied with Sihwan Kim on -11 and three clear of the other Kim, Joohyung. From there, Kaewkanjana barely put a speedy foot, much less a swing, wrong.

“On the final day it was not easy for me, a lot of pressure but I got it so happy.”

He could have fooled everyone watching on TV after playing the final 38-holes on Sentosa’s water hugged and sand-laden Serapong course bogey-free.

You make it look so easy, so uncomplicated. Seriously, Sadom, what’s the secret?

“I think just play happy and just enjoy the game, just live in the present and don’t worry about the results, just live shot by shot and small focus,” he said. “I have a lot of practice and a lot of hard work after COVID-19 so today’s result has made me happy.”

The putt that sealed the victory for Sadom Kaewkanjana.@SingOpenGolf #SingOpen #whereitsAT pic.twitter.com/UUu2Dp6UVK

— Asian Tour (@asiantourgolf) January 23, 2022

Another happy chappie is Joohyung Kim who finished the season Asian No.1 with $507,553.35 from eight starts – six of them resulting in top-10s. After becoming the youngest ever winner of the Korean PGA Tour OOM in 2021, the teen moved to a career-best world ranking of 79.

Just as exciting was confirmation of his Open ticket. It marks the second time in succession that Kim has made it through to golf’s oldest Major via the SMBC Singapore Open as he finished fourth in 2020, the last time the prestigious event was played.

“I had the opportunity to play in The Open last year but could not because of COVID, so it means so much to have a second chance,” Kim said.

Kaewkanjana finished second, $128,581 adrift, with Aussie Wade Ormsby, who had led the OOM all season until Kim won the first leg of the Singapore Swing, finishing third after opting to tee it up in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship instead.

Congratulations to Joohyung Kim on lifting the 2020/21 Order of Merit crown! The 19-year-old topped the final Merit rankings following his joint second-place finish at the SMBC Singapore Open.???@SingOpenGolf @joohyungkim0621 #SingOpen #whereitsAT pic.twitter.com/mZknigCY85

— Asian Tour (@asiantourgolf) January 23, 2022

For all the highs on Sunday in Singapore there were stories of heartbreak too, led by Veer Ahlawat who had one of the four Open Championship starts in his grasp for much of the final round only to finish double bogey-bogey. The Indian eventually settled for a share of fifth, two shots out of the golden ticket zone.

Japan’s Naoki Sekito was also pipped by a tiny margin in the final OOM standings where the top-30 earned invites to King Abdullah Economic City for the Saudi International. Sekito was just $3,433 behind the lucky last qualifier for the Asian Tour’s new “flagship” event at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club, Thailand’s Suradit Yongcharoenchai.

Paul Casey, opting for Singapore over Abu Dhabi for his Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic title-defence tune-up, had a topsy-turvy week, finishing T-16 at -3, 10-shots behind Kaewkanjana.

Here’s the final leaderboard for the 2022 SMBC Singapore Open

Full results: https://t.co/59si9yYSov @SingOpenGolf #SingOpen #whereitsAT pic.twitter.com/g3lM5Y1wTn

— Asian Tour (@asiantourgolf) January 23, 2022

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Star Saudi Int. field ‘very welcome shot in the arm’ for competition-starved Asian Tour members

Kent Gray — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 02:47:42 +0000

Photo by Paul Lakatos/Asian Tour.
Korea’s Joohyung Kim was all smiles at last week’s Blue Canyon Phuket Championship, the Asian Tour’s first event after a 20-month hiatus.

By Kent Gray
Look closely at the Asian Tour players going about their business within the palm-fringed confines of Laguna Phuket Resort this week and you might well discern a conspicuous uptick in intensity.

The smiles that permeated last week’s $1 million Blue Canyon Phuket Championship will no doubt endure, the calling card of collective and lasting relief that the circuit is back up and running after 20 workless months due to the pandemic.

But now the star-studded cast for February’s $5 million Saudi International has been unveiled, expect the range sessions and practice rounds of those prepping for the $1 million Laguna Phuket Championship starting Thursday to be tackled with even more resolve than normal.

Suddenly the chance to tee it up alongside the likes of Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Xander Schauffele, Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott and Bubba Watson in the Asian Tour’s 2022 season-opener is real, not to mention the lure of the potentially life-changing prize money.

Before the circuit’s new “flagship” event near Jeddah from Feb. 3-6, there’s the not insignificant matter of three events to play to complete the hugely disrupted 2020-21 season.

The second leg of the Asian Tour Phuket Series at Laguna Golf Phuket this week and January’s Singapore double-header will be especially important for those scrambling to secure a start in Saudi courtesy of a top-30 finish in the Order Of Merit.

Still, it hasn’t stopped the likes of Joohyung Kim, the 19-year-old Korean star-in-waiting, looking ahead with relish to the Saudi International’s sanctioning switch from the DP World Tour to the Asian Tour.

Bryson DeChambeau is set for this third Saudi International appearance in four years.

“The Saudi International will give us a new opportunity to compete against the world’s best, something many Asian Tour players have never been afforded,” said Kim who moved up to third on the money list courtesy of finishing joint runner-up to Chinese Taipei’s Chan Shih-chang at Blue Canyon last week.

“Given the way events and ranking points are weighted on different tours, it was historically more challenging for players rising through the Asian Tour to find their way into the biggest events.”

Kim is convinced all the Asian Tour players need is a chance to show their capabilities at the highest level. That is now guaranteed courtesy of a 10-year agreement with Golf Saudi for sanctioning rights to the Saudi International. The annual Royal Green’s event, with its star pulling power, is the cherry on top of the icing provided by LIV Golf Investments in the form of an additional decade-long, $200 million investment in 10 new premier events to be bolted onto the Asian Tour schedule from 2022.

“The Asian Tour’s talent pool runs deep and, as we see every week, players from a diverse cross-section of nationalities are more than capable of competing at the highest level,” said Kim.

“More big events will help to create a more prosperous Asian Tour and, without doubt, create new talent that can compete on the biggest stage, giving the sport in Asia and around the world a very welcome shot in the arm.”

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The Asian Tour resumption proves a timely re-set for a Chinese-Taipei journeyman

Kent Gray — Mon, 29 Nov 2021 03:37:10 +0000

Photos by Paul Lakatos/Asian Tour.

The Asian Tour waited 20 months to resume play post the COVID-19 outbreak. Chan Shih-chang’s patience was tested even longer.

By Kent Gray
When Chan Shih-chang won back-to-back Asian Tour events in Asia (keep reading for globe-trotting context) in mid-2016, it seemed Chinese-Taipei had unearthed a potential world-beater.

The victories at Thailand’s King’s Cup in June (then co-sanctioned by the European Tour) and two months later at the Asia-Pacific Diamond Cup (a tournament still co-sanctioned by the Japan Golf Tour) propelled the pint-sized Taiwanese player to a career-high 164th in the OWGR by years end. In between those two heady weeks, Chan made the trek to the OMEGA European Masters in Switzerland for another duel Asian-European Tour stop at famed Crans Sur Sierre, the useful T-49 finish contributing to an eventual fourth-place finish on the 2016 Asian Tour Order of Merit with $542,820 in earnings.

Golf was easy and life was good. With five (of now six) Asian Development Tour wins, Chan had served his apprenticeship and was on his way at the elite level, the world his oyster. Until golf happened that was. You know, that sport where the only guarantee is absolutely no guarantees whatsoever.

Fast-forward 1890 days bouncing between various circuits with varying success and Chan became an Asian Tour winner once again on Sunday. A fittingly topsy-turvy closing 68 got the job done at the $1 million Blue Canyon Phuket Championship, securing victory by a stroke from exciting Korean 19-year-old Joohyung Kim and Thailand’s Sadom Kaewkanjana who might just be the fastest player in professional golf, a trait that should be celebrated nearly as much as Chan’s brilliant Sunday display.

That winning feeling ???#BCPC2021 #whereitsAT pic.twitter.com/aIaM5yF3rd

— Asian Tour (@asiantourgolf) November 28, 2021

The Asian Tour was paused the best part of 20 months by the pandemic and this absorbing Phuket comeback – including a noteworthy T-15 finish for 14-year-old Thai amateur Ratchanon Chantananuwat – almost made the enforced wait worth it. For Chan, who recovered from two bogeys in his opening seven holes on the Canyon course Sunday to eventually post a winning score of 270 (-18), there was no almost about it. What’s an extra 20 months when you’ve been waiting, grinding and hoping for five years?

“It’s impossible, it’s amazing!” said Chan, 35, who banked US$180,000 for this third Asian Tour triumph to rocket 20 places up the 2020-21 Asian Tour OOM to second place behind Aussie Wade Ormsby.

“I am so happy to be back after the problems everyone has had with COVID. My front nine was not very good but an eagle on nine turned things around.”

That deftly drained eagle putt on the reachable par-5 saw Chan turn in 36 strokes – even par for Canyon’s outward nine – but still three shots adrift of playing partner Sihwan Kim, the lanky American who played a pivotal role in Sunday’s narrative before slipping to a share of fourth.

Sihwan Kim.

At least Chan’s backwards momentum had been reversed though, the eagle triggering a run of four successive birdies from the 13th. There was shot after impressive shot down the cliched stretch, the most impressive of them a laser beam to five-feet on the nerve-jangling 14th where water overpowers grass on the island green par-3, at least to the naked eye from an elevated tee pushed back to an extra intimidating 197 yards on Sunday.

Sadom Kaewkanjana.

Chan had a decent look for a fifth straight birdie on 17 as Sihwan Kim’s challenge ended with a bogey and Kaewkanjana, who contributed so much so quickly to the final threesome, hung tough with a gritty par save. It sent the final round drama to the 72nd hole where a pulled drive and resulting tree trouble saw Kaewkanjana send his approach long and left of the green. Chan, meanwhile, also tugged his tee shot left to avoid the water right, and was only able to advance his second shot to just shy of the green from a gnarly, ball-swallowing lie. From there (after Kim missed a decent birdie attempt that might have forced a playoff had Chan and Kim both bogeyed) Kaewkanjana slightly undercooked another knee-knocking par save following a delicate chip across and down the final green. The stage was set for Chan who had pitched to three feet and he didn’t disappoint, calmly nailing the putt to avoid any chance of overtime. The lottery of extra holes is not something you spend five years grinding for. The door was opened and Chan quickly slammed it shut, leaving all challengers behind him.

“I always enjoy coming to Thailand. I feel very relaxed playing here. Actually, I feel less pressure playing here than playing back home,” said Chan who warmed up for the season resumption by finishing second at the Yeangder TPC on home soil last week, an event normally part of the Asian Tour schedule but this year scuppered by COVID-19 restrictions.

Mission accomplished

Chan Shih-chang closes out his third Asian Tour victory at the Blue Canyon Phuket Championship ??#BCPC2021 #whereitsAT pic.twitter.com/ax0Jpp2VB5

— Asian Tour (@asiantourgolf) November 28, 2021

“It’s my second win since my baby boy arrived eight months ago. I guess its baby luck!”

Fatherhood has indeed been kind to Chan who has risen from 1366th to 428th in the latest world rankings and has taken his season earnings to $211, 775. That’s just a whisker more than $25,000 behind Ormsby (T-23 at Blue Canyon) as the field contemplate the 19km journey sou-west to this week’s $1 million Laguna Phuket Championship. It’s the second of four events the Asian Tour has been able to tack onto its 2020-21 schedule to deliver a meaningful season that, ironically, won’t climax until early January 2022 after the just confirmed $1 million Singapore International (Jan. 14-17 at Tanah Merah Country Club) and the $1.25 million SMBC Singapore Open (Jan. 20-23, Sentosa Golf Club).

The great news for Chan? A top-30 finish in the OOM is now guaranteed, meaning a start in February’s Saudi International, the Asian Tour’s new $5 million “flagship” and 2022 season opener, is assured. The world, though vastly different from five years ago, is at Chan’s feet once more.

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