Jaco Ahlers – the serial winner at home in South Africa who has gradually been making a name for himself here in Asia – defends his Mercuries Taiwan Masters title this week hungry for another win in the region.

The US$1 million event tees-off on Thursday at Taiwan Golf & Country Club, one of the toughest courses on the Asian Tour, with Typhoon Krathon ominously approaching and threatening to affect play.

Today’s Pro-Am was cancelled and organisers are closely monitoring the storm to see if it will interfere with the first-round schedule.

Ahlers, however, has a reputation for performing well in difficult conditions, such as here last year, when he was one of only four to finish in red figures.

At the end of a bruising and chastening week he was the last man standing thanks to a gutsy final-round three-under-par 69. His four-day tally of four-under 284 gave him a one-shot win over Indian Chikkarangappa S. with Australian Travis Smyth and Scotsman David Drysdale in joint third – the only other players to better par.

Jaco Ahlers. Picture by Paul Lakatos/Asian Tour.

It remains his sole win on the Asian Tour, while on the Sunshine Tour he has triumphed on 12 occasions, including at the Sunbet Challenge in July.

“Great thoughts on being back,” said the 41-year-old this week.

“It’s a bit weird driving up and seeing your face on the boards. I don’t have bad memories around here as last year was my first time here. Looking forward to playing if we get to play with the typhoon coming.

“It was hard last year, very hard but it is a lot softer this year. The greens are really good. I think the scoring should be a bit better. It’s very playable.”

His winning score was in fact the highest on the Asian Tour last year and he went to finish 13^th on the Asian Tour Order of Merit.

He is currently in 55^th position and with nine events remaining this season he is focused on closing the gap between his number of wins in South Africa compared with Asia.

“We definitely want to win another event. If we can do it in the next six weeks it will be event nicer, we will keep on trying,” added the South African, whose brother Hein is here caddying for him, as was the case last year.

“I just need to do the same things, try and hit the fairways and make some putts; get there on Sunday and see if we have a chance.

“I have worked a bit, with my coach, worked on my swing, so my ball striking is really good. The putting was not good last week.

“The season has been a bit up and down, not really very consistent. South Africa has been ok. This is a good stretch. I will see what we can do for the next six weeks.”

He has been paired with Thailand’s Suteepat Prateeptienchai, winner of last week’s Yeangder TPC, also in Chinese-Taipei, and Chan Shih-chang, the Mercuries Taiwan Masters champion two years ago, from Chinese-Taipei in the first two rounds.