ASIAN GOLF INDUSTRY FEDERATION

Asian Tour Aces Set for Saudi Season-Opener

SINGAPORE 20220123 SADOM KAEWKANJANA low
Sadom Kaewkanjana is among a strong Asian Tour contingent heading to Saudi Arabia next week. Picture by Paul Lakatos/SPORTFIVE.

King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia:  The cream of the Asian Tour will compete in next week’s PIF Saudi International powered by SoftBank Investment Advisers with six Asian Tour number ones and over 50 Asian Tour players, boasting hundreds of Tour titles between them, competing in the season-opening event on the 2022 Asian Tour.

Kim Joo-hyung, the 19-year-old Korean, who secured the 2020-21 Asian Tour Order of Merit title last weekend, after finishing joint second in the SMBC Singapore Open, will lead an impressive line-up which includes former Merit list champions Thongchai Jaidee (2001, 2004, 2009)and his fellow-Thai Jazz Janewattananond (2019), Indian Shubhankar Sharma (2018), Malaysian Gavin Green (2017), and Australian Scott Hend (2016).

The tournament will be played at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club from February 3-6 and will feature the strongest field ever assembled for an Asian Tour event.

Dustin Johnson – the defending champion and 2019 winner – Bryson DeChambeau, and Xander Schauffele, all in the top-10 on the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR), are competing as well as fellow-American and six-time Major champion Phil Mickelson, Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell, the 2020 winner, Spaniard Sergio Garcia, and England’s Lee Westwood, Paul Casey, Tommy Fleetwood, and Ian Poulter, among others.

The tournament will also be one of the most lucrative in the Tour’s history with a purse of US$5 million.

The top-30 players from the final Asian Tour Order of Merit booked their tickets to Saudi although Kim is actually exempt through a category for the top-300 on the OWGR. This also applied to Thais Sadom Kaewkanjana, who claimed the SMBC Singapore Open to finish in second place on the Merit list, and Phachara Khongwatmai, Korean Kim Bi-o, Australian Wade Ormsby plus Jazz and Sharma.

The Asian Tour, a Full Business Member of the Asian Golf Industry Federation, resumed play at the end of last year, following a 20-month break caused by Covid-19, with back-to-back events in Phuket.

Chan Shih-chang from Chinese-Taipei, also playing in Saudi, was victorious in the first of those, the Blue Canyon Phuket Championship, while the following week Phachara lifted the Laguna Phuket Championship trophy.

The Tour resumed its end of season events in Singapore this month with Kim Joo-hyung winning The Singapore International, a week before Sadom’s success in Singapore’s national Open.

A number of Asian players received invites to the tournament including Thongchai, his countryman Prom Meesawat and Filipinos Angelo Que and Miguel Tabuena.

Another of the invites is Thailand’s 14-year-old golfing wonderkid Ratchanon Chantananuwat. The amateur sensation, nicknamed ‘TK’, nearly won The Singapore International, finishing in third place.

Singapore’s Koh Dengshan also earned a berth in the elite field in the Saudi International by being the top local player at the SMBC Singapore Open.

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