Shingo Katayama

Pattaya, Thailand: Japan’s Shingo Katayama, talented Korean duo Choi Jin-ho and Moon Kyong-jun and Wu Ashun of China, winners of the opening three tournaments on the 2015 OneAsia schedule, will bid for more glory at next week’s Singha Corporation Thailand Open.

They are amongst a host of champions who will tee it up in the OneAsia/Japan Golf Tour Organisation joint-sanctioned US$1 million event at Siam Country Club’s Plantation Course from June 11-14.

Prayad Marksaeng clinched the Thailand Open title when the tournament was last played in 2013 becoming just the third Thai to savour victory in its storied decades-long history.

Katayama, Choi, Moon and Wu will be joined in the elite field by fellow OneAsia winners Matthew Griffin and Kim Bi-o, both former number ones, Park Jun-won, Kim Dae-sub, Steve Jeffress, Nick Cullen, Daniel Popovic, Scott Strange and Thaworn Wiratchant.

Victory in last month’s SK Telecom Open saw Choi, who was playing just his third tournament since finishing 20 months of national service, leap to the top of OneAsia’s money list with US$192,118 in winnings.

He is closely followed by GS Caltex Maekyung Open winner Moon who has banked US$180,995 so far this season. Moon, a late bloomer, overcame a panic disorder that threatened his career to win his first OneAsia title at the notoriously difficult Namseoul Country Club.

Wu, the first Chinese to win on the Japan Tour, created a buzz in April when he won the European Tour co-sanctioned Volvo China Open at Tomson Shanghai Pudong Golf Club.

He was just the third Chinese player to win his national Open and the first to lift a European Tour title on home soil.

The 45th staging of the Thailand Open, one of the region’s most prestigious events, will be title sponsored by Singha Corporation.

The tournament is promoted by World Sport Group, a Full Business Member of the Asian Golf Industry Federation.