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Bio Kim and Taehoon Ok go low to lead Asian Tour International Series Korea

Matt Smith — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 11:29:45 +0000

Bio Kim. Asian Tour

By Matt Smith
There were plenty of reasons for the local fans to get the flags out at the Asian Tour International Series Korea as for homegrown talents held the top four spots at the halfway point of the $1.5 million tournament on Jeju Island.

Bio Kim and Taehoon Ok are tied at the top after two rounds thanks to a respective 63 and 64 on Friday. They moved to 10-under at Lotte Skyhill Country Club.

Hanbyeol Kim signed for a 66 to sit two shots back, while his compatriot Yoseop Seo returned the same score and is one stroke further adrift. Bio made nine birdies and dropped just one shot to put himself in the perfect position to win his second Asian Tour event at the weekend, having been triumphant in the GS Caltex Maekyung Open, also in Korea, in May.

“It is really great having my family here, we are having fun here,” the 31-year-old said. “It’s a family trip which allows me to get away from golf for a bit. I think I was thinking too much the past month, it shows I should do that a little more often.”

Starting on the back nine he quickly found his range with birdies on 11, 13, 15 and 16 before making a bogey on 18: that little hiccup only prompted him to pick up the pace and he made birdies on one, two, four, six and seven.

“My tee shot was a lot better and also my iron game, and obviously I made putts and at the end of the day I made nine birdies. I made a mistake on 18, my ninth today, but I played solid,” he added.

Taehoon Ok. Asian Tour

Ok is looking to win for the first time as a professional and made eight birdies and a solitary bogey.

“I struggled a bit on the second half but hung in there,” said Ok. “I really want to win on the Asian Tour and take my game forward and help my dream of getting onto the PGA Tour. I’m not good enough yet. Plan is to make a success in Korea first and really challenge myself.”

He came close to winning the Korea Open this year and was tied for the lead after the third round but carded a disappointing 75 on the final day and finished joint sixth place.

Ok also a tied fifth in the GS Caltex Maekyung Open to suggest a win this year is not far away.

He added: “It was heart breaking what happened at the Korea Open but I gained a lot of experience.”

Korean Taeho Kim (66), India’s Veer Ahlawat (66) American Trevor Simsby (69), LIV Golf South Africans Justin Harding (70) and Ian Snyman (70), and first-round leader Pavit Tangkamolprasert from Thailand (73) are six-under for the tournament; while India’s Gaganjeet Bhullar, who won the Mandiri Indonesia Open for a record third time this month, returned a 65 and is five behind the leader, along with five other players.

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Asian Tour: South Korean veteran Dongmin Lee makes experience count at Maekyung Open

Matt Smith — Thu, 05 May 2022 13:19:52 +0000

Dongmin Lee. Asian Tour

By Matt Smith
South Korean home favourite Dongmin Lee ensured experience counted as he shot a six-under 65 to take command of the Maekyung Open at Namseoul Country Club.

Dongmin holds a one-shot lead over compatriot Hyungjoon Lee, and he drew on the experience of having played this event many times — as the Asian Tour returned to Korea for the first time since 2019.

“I have a lot of experience on this course, so I know exactly where I shouldn’t go and where I should go,” said Dongmin, 36, a two-time winner on the Korean PGA Tour and a professional for 20 years.

“A first-day six-under is great. I hope I can play the rest of the tournament this well. It’s my best score in this course. Namseoul is difficult, but I played aggressively, and things worked out well.”

Hyungjoon added: “I teed up early in the morning on the back nine. There was no wind really until the second [11th] and third [12th] holes. It was easy to make a birdie. I felt confident.

“I had about a three-week break after the season opening tournament and I spent a lot of time practising my putting to get ready for Namseoul. I really wanted to work on my feel and touch. I practised at quite a lot of different venues and came to Namseoul four times.”

Bio Kim, winner of this event in 2012, and Junggon Hwang, a four-time winner in Japan, fired 67s.

Thailand’s Natipong Srithong carded a 68 along with Asian Tour Qualifying School graduates Neil Schietekat from South Africa and Ireland’s Kevin Phelan, as well as India’s Khalin Joshi, Canadian Richard Lee and Koreans Doyeob Mun, Junghwan Lee and Yoon Chung.

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How the PGA Tour made the one-year move of its Asian events to America work

Golf Digest Middle East — Thu, 15 Oct 2020 04:07:50 +0000

Tiger Woods and Zozo, Inc. founder Yusaku Maezawa share a laugh during the awards ceremony of the inaugural Zozo Championship, which Woods won in October 2019. The Asahi Shimbun

By Daniel Rapaport
At present, South Korea has some rather severe restrictions for incoming travellers. Any foreigner visiting the country is required to download an app at the airport and undergo a mandatory two-week quarantine period. In addition, no visitor is permitted to fly domestically within South Korea until completing the 14-day requirement. It’s part of the nation’s largely successful strategy to mitigate the impact of COVID-19—South Korea was one of the first countries to experience a major outbreak, but contact-tracing efforts and an advanced testing apparatus have coincided with steadily dropping infection and death rates.

On that front, it’s hard to argue with the mandatory quarantine. But as far as holding a golf tournament goes? It’s a bit of a deal-breaker.

“When those restrictions took place,” said Ty Votaw, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for the PGA Tour, when discussing the status of the tour’s Asian swing events, “we were confronted with the reality that if [the restrictions] stayed in place between then and the tournament, very few, if any, players would fly to Seoul, sit in a hotel for 14 days, then fly to Jeju Island for the CJ Cup.”

Without golfers, there are no golf tournaments. So if the PGA Tour wanted to host this week’s CJ Cup, or the Zozo Championship, set for the following week at Accordia Narashino Golf Club in Japan (where there are similarly stringent quarantine requirements), it would have to make alternative arrangements.

But before any of that could go forward, the tour needed approval and cooperation from both title sponsors, which signed up to host tournaments in Asia, not the western region of the United States.

Those discussions began in late April, and both CJ and Zozo were on board with moving forward.

“There were strong concerns about hosting the event, but our top management wanted to make sure that the show goes on,” said Brian Kim, executive director of the CJ Cup, which was first held in 2017. “We felt that we had obligations to the global golf audience to continue the legacy of the CJ Cup. Cancellation was not in our mind at all.”

That was no small commitment. CJ Group, a Korean conglomerate with business interests in a number of sectors, does significant food-services business in the United States, including its Bibigo Kitchen restaurant chain. But Zozo, a massive online fashion retailer based in Japan, does not have a presence in the U.S. market.

“We had so much momentum after last year, hosting the first PGA Tour event in Japan and having Tiger win it,” said Megumi Hatakeyama, golf marketing vice president for Zozo, Inc. “We didn’t want to let that fire go out.”

Logistical reasons forced the tour’s third Asia-based event, the WGC-HSBC Championship in China, to be cancelled.

Justin Thomas has won the CJ Cup in two of its first three years as a PGA Tour event. JUNG YEON-JE

With the sponsors on board, next came finding host venues. MGM Resorts International had been in contact with the tour during the 11-week hiatus, as well as other sports leagues, about ways in which they could help sports restart in America. (MGM, it has been reported, offered to provide a “bubble” for the NBA). And the tour was familiar with MGM’s golf course, Shadow Creek in Las Vegas, because it hosted the $9 million match between Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods in November 2018.

Two other factors worked in Shadow Creek’s favour: First, its standing as the premier golf course in Nevada—the Tom Fazio layout is No. 26 on Golf Digest America’s 100 Greatest course ranking—and second, and perhaps most crucially, the simple fact that the tour was already going to be in Vegas for the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, at nearby TPC Summerlin. In addition, not having to accommodate fans from an infrastructure perspective made the task more manageable for Shadow Creek.

For reasons similar to Shadow Creek, Sherwood Country Club, located in Thousand Oaks, northwest of Los Angeles, quickly emerged as a potential one-time host for the Zozo. The Jack Nicklaus signature design is also a world-class golf course, ranked in 2019 at No. 195 in Golf Digest’s Second 100 Greatest Courses. It’s also just four traffic-dependent hours away from Las Vegas, allowing players to avoid flying between tournaments and making it easier for the tour’s travelling infrastructure—TV compounds, Shotlink machinery, golf equipment trucks, etc.—to get from place to place. The location is also preferable because the 15-hour time difference between Los Angeles and Tokyo means the tournament will finish at a manageable time on Monday morning for Japanese fans. There’s also the familiarity aspect, as the PGA Tour Champions has held an event there since 2016.

And then there’s the Tiger connection. Woods, of course, won his record-tying 82nd PGA Tour event last year at the Zozo. From 2000 to 2013, Woods hosted his foundation’s golf tournament at Sherwood and won the event there five times. As far as a place to defend his title and chance at win No. 83, it doesn’t get more comfortable. A deal was finalized at the end of August.

Tiger Woods has won five times at Sherwood Country Club, which hosted his limited-field events. Stephen Dunn

Woods is committed to playing in the Zozo, as are Justin Thomas, Hideki Matsuyama, Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson, Jon Rahm, Rickie Fowler, Justin Rose and Jordan Spieth. The CJ Cup, with Thomas as the defending champion, has a similarly stacked field—16 of the top 20 players in the world rankings were entered before the withdrawals on Tuesday of Dustin Johnson, due to a positive COVID-19 test, and Tony Finau.

Surely the two events’ proximity to the Masters plays a role in the star-studded fields. The Zozo falls just three weeks before Augusta, and plenty of players will use the Zozo as their last start before the year’s final major. And both tournaments are an opportunity to get four guaranteed rounds in, as each features a 78-man field with no cut.

But don’t underestimate the impact the sponsors had in securing marquee commitments, as well as the two elite host venues the tour secured.

“I think every player, down to the last player, appreciates what CJ and Zozo,” Votaw said. “And the fields these next two weeks reflect that.”

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2019 CJ Cup tee times, viewer’s guide

Golf Digest Middle East — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 05:25:11 +0000

NurPhoto

By Greg Gottfried
The PGA Tour heads to Asia for a three-tournament swing, which begins this week in South Korea at The CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges. The tour then heads to Japan for the inaugural ZOZO Championship, followed by the WGC-HSBC Champions in China.

Brooks Koepka is the defending champion at the CJ Cup, and is in the field this week, as is Justin Thomas, who won the inaugural CJ Cup in 2017. Koepka shot a seven-under 29 on the front nine during the final round in 2018 en route to winning the title. The victory pushed Koepka to No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time in his career. Koepka shot the 54-hole and 72-hole scoring record when he finished with a 21-under 267, four strokes better than runner-up Gary Woodland.

A limited-field, 78-player event will be played at Jeju Island for a purse of $9.75 million, the winner earning $1.755 million. Sixteen golfers from South Korea are in the field, including PGA Tour Rookie of the Year Sungjae Im.

This will be Phil Mickelson’s first CJ Cup, as well as Jordan Spieth’s 2019-’20 season debut.

Thursday Tee Times (all times local/EDT)
Tee No. 1
8 a.m./7 p.m. Weds — Jhonattan Vegas, Adam Schenk, Kyoung-Hoon Lee
8:10 a.m./7:10 p.m. Weds — Ryan Moore, Brian Stuard, Soomin Lee
8:20 a.m./7:20 p.m. Weds — C.T. Pan, Corey Conners, Scott Piercy
8:30 a.m./7:30 p.m. Weds — J.B. Holmes, Adam Long, Ian Poulter
8:40 a.m./7:40 p.m. Weds — Joaquin Niemann, Dylan Frittelli, Chez Reavie
8:50 a.m./7:50 p.m. Weds — Max Homa, Charles Howell III, Pat Perez
9 a.m./8 p.m. Weds — Luke List, Wyndham Clark, Tae Hee Lee
9:10 a.m./8:10 p.m. Weds — Charley Hoffman, Emiliano Grillo, Jazz Janewattananond
9:20 a.m./8:20 p.m. Weds — Gary Woodland, Jason Day, Sungjae Im
9:30 a.m./8:30 p.m. Weds — Brooks Koepka, Hideki Matsuyama, Si Woo Kim
9:40 a.m./8:40 p.m. Weds — Matthew Wolff, Andrew Putnam, Danny Willett
9:50 a.m./8:50 p.m. Weds — Byeong Hun An, Abraham Ancer, Kyongjun Moon
10 a.m./9 p.m. Weds — Cameron Smith, Vikto Hovland, Hyungjoon Lee

Tee No. 10
8 a.m./7 p.m. Weds — Branden Grace, Lucas Glover, Sanghyun Park
8:10 a.m./7:10 p.m. Weds — Vaughn Taylor, Danny Lee, Jeongwoo Ham
8:20 a.m./7:20 p.m. Weds — Justin Thomas, Phil Mickelson, Marc Leishman
8:30 a.m./7:30 p.m. Weds — Jordan Spieth, Sergio Garcia, Tommy Fleetwood
8:40 a.m./7:40 p.m. Weds– Kevin Na, Graeme McDowell, K.J. Choi
8:50 a.m./7:50 p.m. Weds — Harold Varner III, Tyrrell Hatton, Yi Keun Chang
9 a.m./8 p.m. Weds — Joel Dahmen, Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Yongjun Bae
9:10 a.m./8:10 p.m. Weds — Kevin Streelman, Rory Sabbatini, Jung-gon Hwang
9:20 a.m./8:20 p.m. Weds — Chesson Hadley, Rafa Cabrera Bello, Chase Koepka
9:30 a.m./8:30 p.m. Weds — Nate Lashley, Keith Mitchell, Troy Merritt
9:40 a.m./8:40 p.m. Weds — Sung Kang, Kevin Tway, Michael Kim
9:50 a.m./8:50 p.m. Weds — Coillin Morikawa, Ryan Palmer, Billy Horschel
10 a.m./9 p.m. Weds — Matt Jones, Wonjoon Lee, Whee Kim

Friday Tee Times (all times local/EDT)
Tee No. 1
8 a.m./7 p.m. Thurs. — Kevin Streelman, Rory Sabbatini, Jung-gon Hwang
8:10 a.m./7:10 p.m. Thurs. — Chesson Hadley, Rafa Cabrera Bello, Chase Koepka
8:20 a.m./7:20 p.m. Thurs. — Nate Lashley, Keith Mitchell, Troy Merritt
8:30 a.m./7:30 p.m. Thurs. — Sung Kang, Kevin Tway, Michael Kim
8:40 a.m./7:40 p.m. Thurs. — Coillin Morikawa, Ryan Palmer, Billy Horschel
8:50 a.m./7:50 p.m. Thurs. — Matt Jones, Wonjoon Lee, Whee Kim
9 a.m./8 p.m. Thurs. — Branden Grace, Lucas Glover, Sanghyun Park
9:10 a.m./8:10 p.m. Thurs. — Vaughn Taylor, Danny Lee, Jeongwoo Ham
9:20 a.m./8:20 p.m. Thurs. — Justin Thomas, Phil Mickelson, Marc Leishman
9:30 a.m./8:30 p.m. Thurs. — Jordan Spieth, Sergio Garcia, Tommy Fleetwood
9:40 a.m./8:40 p.m. Thurs. — Kevin Na, Graeme McDowell, K.J. Choi
9:50 a.m./8:50 p.m. Thurs. — Harold Varner III, Tyrrell Hatton, Yi Keun Chang
10 a.m./9 p.m. Thurs. — Joel Dahmen, Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Yongjun Bae

Tee No. 10
8 a.m./7 p.m. Thurs. — Charley Hoffman, Emiliano Grillo, Jazz Janewattananond
8:10 a.m./7:10 p.m. Thurs. — Gary Woodland, Jason Day, Sungjae Im
8:20 a.m./7:20 p.m. Thurs. — Brooks Koepka, Hideki Matsuyama, Si Woo Kim
8:30 a.m./7:30 p.m. Thurs. — Matthew Wolff, Andrew Putnam, Danny Willett
8:40 a.m./7:40 p.m. Thurs. — Byeong Hun An, Abraham Ancer, Kyongjun Moon
8:50 a.m./7:50 p.m. Thurs. — Cameron Smith, Vikto Hovland, Hyungjoon Lee
9 a.m./8 p.m. Thurs. — Jhonattan Vegas, Adam Schenk, Kyoung-Hoon Lee
9:10 a.m./8:10 p.m. Thurs. — Ryan Moore, Brian Stuard, Soomin Lee
9:20 a.m./8:20 p.m. Thurs. — C.T. Pan, Corey Conners, Scott Piercy
9:30 a.m./8:30 p.m. Thurs. — J.B. Holmes, Adam Long, Ian Poulter
9:40 a.m./8:40 p.m. Thurs. — Joaquin Niemann, Dylan Frittelli, Chez Reavie
9:50 a.m./8:50 p.m. Thurs. — Max Homa, Charles Howell III, Pat Perez
10 a.m./9 p.m. Thurs. — Luke List, Wyndham Clark, Tae Hee Lee

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