Tournament Information

• Tournament: Link Hong Kong Open
• Date: November 21- 24, 2024
• Venue: Hong Kong Golf Club, Fanling
• Par/Yards: Par 70 / 6,710 Yards
• Purse: US$2 million (US$360,000)
• Asian Tour leg: 19th event of the 2024 season
• International Series leg: Eighth
• Edition of tournament: 63^rd
• Total number of players: 132
• Format: 72-hole stroke play with a cut made after two rounds to the leading 65 pros plus ties
• Social Media Hashtags: #LinkHKO2024 #InternationalSeries #ThisISEverything #TimeToRise

Picture by Paul Lakatos/Asian Tour.

Field Breakdown

• Order of Merit winners: Sihwan Kim (2022), Tom Kim (2020/21/22) Jazz Janewattananond (2019), Scott Hend (2016), Anirban Lahiri (2015)
• Nationalities: 26
• Top contenders: Justin Rose (ENG), John Catlin (USA), Ben Campbell (NZL), Tom Kim (KOR), Patrick Reed (USA), MJ Maguire (USA), Lee Chieh-po (TPE), Richard T. Lee (CAN), Peter Uihlein (USA), Anirban Lahiri (IND), Suteepat Prateeptienchai (THA)
• Highest ranked player on OWGR: Tom Kim (KOR) #27
• Highest ranked player on 2024 Asian Tour Order of Merit: John Catlin #1
• Highest ranked player on 2024 International Series Rankings: John Catlin #1
• Defending champion: Ben Campbell (NZL)
• of amateurs: 5
• of Hong Kong players in the field: 9

Ben Campbell. Picture by Paul Lakatos/Asian Tour.

Tournament Notes

• American John Catlin has been in great form this whole season with eighth top 10s in 11 Asian Tour events, and he leads both the Asian Tour Order of Merit and The International Series Rankings. The 33-year-old has posted two victories so far this season, the International Series Macau presented by Wynn and the Saudi Open presented by PIF, as well as three runners-up in the Black Mountain Championship, the International Series Morocco and the Yeangder TPC. A tied third finish in the season opening IRS Prima Malaysian Open secured him a spot in the 152nd Open Championship where he finished tied 16th for his best result in a major. He currently leads the Order of Merit with 3,030.06 points to Canadian Richard T. Lee, the winner of the recent BNI Indonesian Masters, who is in second place with 1,775.29. He also tops The International Series Ranking with 900.58 points against 660.64 for Lee who is also second on this list. Catlin has also subbed in for injured players on three different teams on the LIV Golf League this year and posted an impressive T7 in LIV Golf Nashville in June. Catlin has amassed US$1,393,925 in earnings on the Asian Tour so far this season, while his LIV Golf League total was US$1,629,367 in his 2024 campaign.
• Golf legend Justin Rose is here this week. He lifted the Hong Kong Open trophy in 2015, when he was in the middle of a 12-month hot streak that began with a T2 at the US Masters and ended in 2016 when he captured gold for Great Britain at the Rio Olympics. The 44-year-old returns to the tournament having tied for second at The Open Championship in July. Winner of the 2013 US Open he has triumphed on 11 occasions on both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour. He is a two-time winner on the Asian Tour, having claimed the Indonesian Masters in 2017.
• Chinese Taipei’s Lee Chieh-po is coming into the week with four consecutive top 10s, and six in his last seven events, including a win at International Series Thailand late last month. He also had a close call and solo third at the Black Mountain Championship, missing the play-off by only one shot, a fourth-place finish at Yeangder TPC and a T9 at the Shinhan Donghae Open in September.
• The defending champion Ben Campbell from New Zealand is a two-time International Series winner after capturing this summer’s International Series Morocco in a play-off against John Catlin, and the 2023 edition of this event. Currently fourth on both the Asian Tour Order of Merit and in The International Series Rankings, Campbell finished T6 at his last tournament, the BNI Indonesian Masters and T4 in the Black Mountain Championship last month. Other good results this season includes a T5 at the International Series Macau presented by Wynn and a T10 at the 103rd New Zealand Open presented by Sky Sport.
• American MJ Maguire won the Black Mountain Championship after defeating John Catlin on the second play-off hole, and also had a great week at the International Series Thailand finishing T4 after a final round 61. Maguire also had a good result at the BNI Indonesian Masters with a T8 for his third straight top 10, and he also posted a T7 at the Mercuries Taiwan Masters in early October.
• Richard T. Lee from Canada finally got his third Asian Tour win at the BNI Indonesian Masters, his first since 2017, and is entering the week with four top 10s in a row. He also finished T2 at the International Series Thailand, T9 at the Black Mountain Championship and T10 at the Yeangder TPC in September. He has been a remarkably consistent high performer this season, also posting a third place at the GS Caltex Maekyung Open and eighth position at the International Series Macau presented by Wynn. His current cut streak on the Asian Tour stands at 14, and the last tournament he was not around for the weekend was last year’s International Series Singapore in October.
• American Peter Uihlein won the International Series England in August and came close to posting another victory at his last Asian Tour event, the International Series Thailand, finishing T2 just one shot behind the winner after a bogey on the 72^nd He is currently in third place in The International Series Rankings. In addition to the results in England and Thailand, he also has a T3 at the Saudi Open presented by PIF and a sixth-place finish at the International Series Oman earlier in the season. Uihlein also plays in the LIV Golf League where he had a T2 at the LIV Golf Las Vegas as his best result this year.
• The 2015 Order of Merit champion Anirban Lahiri of India came very close to capturing his first LIV Golf League event at the legendary Real Club Valderrama in Andalucia, Spain in July. A missed short putt on the 18th in regulation play put Lahiri in a play-off with Sergio Garcia who came out on top in the end. Lahiri’s impressive resume boasts seven Asian Tour titles as well as a runner up at the 2022 Players Championship, a tied second at the 2017 Memorial Tournament on the PGA Tour. His best finish in a Major is a tied fifth at the 2015 PGA Championship. He won the Asian Tour Merit title in 2015.
• The 2018 Masters Tournament winner Patrick Reed of the U.S. is making his second Asian Tour start of the season, after previously playing the International Series Macau presented by Wynn where he finished fourth. Reed is a nine-time winner on the PGA Tour and has appeared on three Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup squads each.
• Suteepat Prateeptienchai of Thailand is now a three-time Asian Tour winner in a span of 12 months after successfully defending his Taiwan Glass Taifong Open title last week and winning the Yeander TPC two months ago. He has also posted good results at the Black Mountain Championship where he was T4 and at the Mandiri Indonesia Open where he finished T6. Currently in fifth place on the Asian Tour Order of Merit.
• Hong Kong number one Taichi Kho is making his first Asian Tour start since the Mandiri Indonesia Open in August, after recovering from a back injury. Kho famously won the 2023 World City Championship presented by Hong Kong Golf Club in March last year, becoming the first player from Hong Kong to win on the Asian Tour. In nine Asian Tour starts this season Kho has posted a T10 at the International Series England as his best result.
• Germany’s Martin Kaymer is a two-time major champion, winning the 2010 PGA Championship and the 2014 U.S. Open, the latter coming just a month after also capturing the Players Championship. He is an 11-time winner on the DP World Tour and has represented Europe four times in the Ryder Cup, three of them on the winning side. In 2011 he reached number one in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) and held that spot for eight weeks before he was overtaken by Lee Westwood. Kaymer currently plays on the LIV Golf League captaining the Cleeks GC.