The 65th Korea Open begins this week, will plenty on intriguing storylines to keep track of at Woo Jeung Hills Country Club — south of Seoul.

With two spots in the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool up for grabs, the event has attracted a strong field, with Scott Vincent making a return from his LIV Golf schedule for the 10th event of the season on the Asian Tour. The Zimbabwean has impressed once again on LIV, highlighted by a fourth-place finish in Singapore.

He is joined by brother Kieran, who claimed the International Series Vietnam in April and is one of five winners from the Asian Tour this year competing here, along with Hong Kong’s Taichi Kho (World City Championship), Miguel Tabuena (The DGC Open) from the Philippines and Australian Brendan Jones (New Zealand Open).

Tabuena, who has not finished worse than 22nd in six starts in 2023, is the leading player competing from the Asian Tour Order of Merit (OOM), sitting in second place. Kieran is the top golfer from the International Series OOM. He is in third place on that Merit list, which sees the winner at the end of the season earn passage onto the 2024 LIV Golf League — a feat achieved by his brother Scott last year.

The other Asian Tour winner from this season is Korea’s rising star Chanmin Jung, who recorded a surprise victory in the GS Caltex Maekyung Open in May.

The strapping 23 year old, nicknamed ‘Hulk’, is bidding to become only the second player to win the Maekyung event and Korea Open in the same season. His compatriot Sangmoon Bae, did the double in 2009.

Defending champion Minkyu Kim, who beat fellow Korean Mingyu Cho in a play-off last season, is back this year along with five other former winners: Junseok Lee (2021), Seunghyuk Kim (2014), Yikeun Chang (2017), Minchel Choi (2018), and veteran Jong-duck Kim (1997).

The post Asian Tour’s best go in hunt of Open Championship spots in Korea appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The 21-year-old Kim holed a 10-foot birdie putt on the 18th for victory in the play-off, which was played over holes 16, 17 and 18, on even par, while Cho made bogey to end one-over. It was a tremendous turnaround as Kim started with a par and a bogey verses the two pars his opponent had made to put him in control.

It is the first time that Kim ­— who won the 2018 Real Czech Challenge on the Challenge Tour, becoming its youngest-ever winner at 17 years, 64 days — has won in his homeland and his success was rewarded with an invite to The Open at St Andrews in July. Cho’s consolation prize is also a place in the elite field for the game’s oldest major.

Kim began the day three behind the overnight leaders Cho and another Korean Taehoon Ok but steadily worked his way through the field with a two-under 69 to set the clubhouse lead on four under, which included a bogey on the last.

Korean Hyungjoon Lee, playing in the penultimate group, look set to surpass that total and most likely win the tournament when he was five-under playing 18 but added to the drama of the day when he finished with a double-bogey after going out of bounds.

Thirty-three-year-old Cho then had a chance to win the 64th staging of Korea’s national Open in normal time with a 20-foot birdie putt on 18 but his attempt narrowly missed, and he signed for a 72 to send the event in over time.

“I can’t believe I have actually won,” said Kim, who has posted seven top-10s in his last 10 starts.

“I have come close to winning before and I wondered if I would ever win. I felt good on the back nine and started to feel I had a chance.

“Straight after I won, I thought of my father; I have to thank him for this. My golf is just beginning.”

On the final play-off hole, Cho hit an errant drive which forced him to punch his ball back into play while Kim assumed control after hitting his second over three green. Cho’s third found the edge of the green from where he played a poor chip to 25 feet. He proceeded to miss that while Kim got up and down for the most important birdie of his career.

“Winning is a difficult task. I think it was a good day, and I will move on,” said Cho. I am now planning to go and play in Europe for the first time, where, I am sure, I’ll learn a lot.”

American Jarin Todd closed with a 70 to tie for third with Lee, who returned a 71, one shot short of the play-off.

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The post Asian Tour: Kim edges Cho to claim Korea Open in dramatic playoff to book spot at Open Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Matt Smith
South Korea’s Sanghee Lee added a second-round three-under 68 to his opening 69 to take the halfway lead in the Kolon Korea Open at Woo Jeong Hills Country Club.

The home hope is five-under, one ahead of his countrymen Taehee Lee (66) and Taehoon Ok (69) and American Jarin Todd (69).

The event is worth just over $1 million and there is athe added incentive of two spots at the Open Championship in St Andrews to play for.

Sanghee has won four times in Korea but admitted that his national Open is the one that he really wants to win the most.

“I have claimed the NH Open, KPGA Championship, SK Telecom Open and GS Caltex Maekyung Open but the Korea Open is the big one we all want to win,” said Sanghee.

“I have challenged every year, but the results were disappointing. Thinking about it, I felt a lot of pressure. I felt a strain on myself, it didn’t work. On my day off from the army, I often watched Korean tour events and had a strong desire to get back playing again.”

He made birdie on the par-five 18th to take the outright lead to set up one of the most important weekends of his career.

He added: “Today, I did well despite difficult pin positions. My tee shots were accurate and my second shots were also very good but the putting wasn’t as good as yesterday. It was a bummer. I’m sad, but I’ll prepare well for the remaining two days and get a good result. It’s going to be fun.”

Taehoon took advantage of his early tee time to ease his way into contention. “I’m surprised to be in the lead,” he said after his round. “I made a double-bogey on the fourth hole and bounced back with a birdie on the fifth. The positions of the pins today were tricky.”

Todd looked set to also finish the day on five-under but found water on the last and made bogey.

“It’s always tricky out here,” said the American. “It got a little bit tricky on the back nine. It’s always hard here. I putted pretty good today, was missing on the right spots so I had the chance to get up and down. Bad luck there on the last with the lie and the wind gust but overall, a good day.

“The season has been good so far. I’m starting to get back into the flow. I didn’t play at all during the COVID break so it’s nice playing some of the bigger events now. There’s still a long track to go from here, two more days. A win here will be really fun, especially with The Open spot on offer this week. I came close to getting it in Singapore, finished top-five there. It was disappointing. I’d actually rather take The Open spot than the win this week! Just because it’s going to be at the old course at St Andrews and it’s on every golfer’s bucket list.”

Koreans Junghwan Lee (71), Kyongjun Moon (70), Doyeon Hwang (68), and Hyungjoon Lee (68) are three-under in a tie for fifth.

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The post Asian Tour: Sanghee Lee targets home triumph in Korea Open, with Open Championship spot in sights appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

With just over $1 million on offer and two spots at the Open Championship in St Andrews to play for in breezy and rainy conditions at Woo Jeong Hills Country Club, nerves were at the fore. It led to a jam-packed leaderboard, with only four strokes separating the top 28 players in the Asian Tour/Korea Golf Association co-sanctioned event.

Home hope Junghwan, 30, a two-time winner on the Korean circuit, has just returned to professional circuit after completing his National Service, said: “I stayed bogey-free on a difficult course. I feel good because I got a good result even though the weather was bad.”

“I haven’t played well after coming out from the army but my game is been more stable since I got married last year. I live in Gwangju and I drive about two hours to the course here every day. It is nice to get off to a good start. I will stay calm and see how it goes the next few days.”

Seungsu, 35, was prepared for a tough challenge on the course. “There were some tough pins. I played good, hit a lot of good shots, and stayed in the right spots all day,” he said. “I think this is my fourth time playing this tournament, so I am more familiar with it now. I know how they are going to set it up, so I don’t panic about it.”

“You just have to keep on hitting good shots, and leave yourself in the right positions here, especially with the pins that they are going to put on the greens. You have to be super patient. I hit the ball really well today, I kept it in play off the tee, hit a lot of greens and was also on the right side of the hole for the most part. When you do that you get some birdie looks.

Leaderboard

1= Seungsu Han -3
1= Jaemin Hwang -3
1= Junghwan Lee -3
4= Nitithorn Thippong -2
4= Jarin Todd -2
4= Soonsang Hong -2
4= Sanghee Lee -2
4= Chang Wei-lun -2
4= Taehoon Ok -2
4= Kyongjun Moon -2
11= Taeyang Jung -1
11= Byungjun Kim -1
11= Jeongwoo Ham -1
11= Miguel Tabuena -1
11= Heungchol Joo -1

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The post Asian Tour: Trio lead the way as Korea Open field chase two Open Championship spots appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The 64th Korea Open Golf Championship is back on the Asian Tour agenda with a bang after three years out due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The tournament was last won by Thailand’s Jazz Janewattananond during his epic 2019 season, will be played at Woo Jeong Hills Country Club from June 23-26.

It will be the 10th leg of this season’s Asian Tour and the second visit of the year to South Korea, after next week’s 41st Maekyung Open at Namseoul Country Club.

“The Korea Open is one of our mainstay events and always a high point of the year,” said Cho Minn Thant, Commissioner & CEO of the Asian Tour.

“With the Korea Open back on the schedule it shows the Asian Tour is returning to full speed and along with next week’s GS Caltex Maekyung Open means our membership are able to return to one of their favourite tournament destinations.”

Korea’s national Open was held last year and won by local hero Junseok Lee but it was played as a domestic event on the Korean PGA Tour, due to travel restrictions, while the year before it was cancelled.

When Janewattananond won the title in 2019 it was his second victory of the year before also going on to win the Indonesian Masters and Thailand Masters to take the Asian Tour Order of Merit title.

Former winers of the event include Sergio Garcia (2002), John Daly (2003), Vijay Singh (2007) and Ricky Fowler (2011). Scott Hoch also lifted the trophy in 1990 and 1991.

Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy was runner-up in 2011 and 2013.

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The post Korea Open Golf Championship back on Asian Tour after three-year break appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.