When Thailand’s Suteepat Prateeptienchai proclaims his love for Taiwan, it comes straight from the heart and is backed by results. Story from the 2024 Yearbook.

The 31-year-old produced a masterclass of frontrunning at the Linkou International Golf and Country Club and secured a two-shot, wire-to-wire win at the Yeangder TPC.

It was his second Asian Tour win on the island in less than a year, as 10 months earlier he had claimed the Taiwan Glass Taifong Open – some 180 kilometres south, in dominating fashion by four shots.

Remarkably, a few months after winning the Yeangder event he would return to successfully defend his Taiwan Glass Taifong Open crown, completing a rare hat-trick of titles in the same country.

However, the Yeangder TPC was by far the biggest win for the Thai star. This time, apart from the omnipresent Taiwanese wind, he also had to battle John Catlin – the in-form American leading the Asian Tour Order of Merit with two early wins in the season.

Suteepat Prateeptienchai. Picture by Vachira Kalong/Asian Tour.

Catlin promised to spoil Suteepat’s party with five successive birdies in his first five holes – and six in his first seven holes – on Sunday.

In that stretch of seven holes, Suteepat made just one birdie – on the par-four third hole – but that was enough to keep his nose ahead of the charging Catlin, who had started the final round six shots behind the leader.

Miguel Tabuena, at 16-under, was his closest rival after the first three rounds, and even though the Filipino made three birdies in his first 11 holes, Suteepat maintained the two-shot advantage with three birdies of his own at that stage.

Tabuena’s (70) challenge fizzled out with bogeys on the 11th and 14th holes. Catlin (65) could only find a couple of birdies and a bogey after the hot start, which just eased the pressure on Suteepat (69), who could afford to make two bogeys coming in. He did close with a birdie on the par-five 18th hole, where he almost chipped in for an eagle for a grandstand finish.

Suteepat, who also plays on the local tour in Taiwan and had three top-10s in four starts during their season, said: “I love Taiwan! I have a lot of friends who have graduated from the Asian Development Tour to the Asian Tour. I am comfortable here and it is great fun.

“It was tough today, because of the wind and good players following me. I saw Catlin’s score and then got nervous. Got into trouble on the 15th, where I went over the green and then found a greenside bunker on the 16th. But I kept thinking I was still the leader, and I must hold on.

“This means a lot… an exemption for two years is amazing!”

The weather over the weekend was tough with wind and rain, and Catlin, who recorded his first win on the Asian Tour in April 2017 at the same tournament, felt he handled the conditions well.

“I just kept having fun and enjoying playing golf. It was windy, it was difficult, it was rainy… I think we pretty much saw every possible weather out there. I handled it pretty well. I guess my years in Europe paid off,” said Catlin, who opened up a huge lead of 1,146.83 points on the Merit list with the finish.

“I hit the ball much better today than I did on Saturday and that gave me a lot more chances. I was able to convert a couple of them and I hit a couple stone dead, which always helps.”

The 29-year-old Tabuena, who was looking for his fourth win on the Asian Tour, revealed he played the tournament with pain in his left thumb.

The in-form golfer, who came into the tournament with three top 10s in his last five starts, said: “It was good, but I was fighting a bit of pain on my left thumb again. It started on Wednesday, so I was just trying to take care of it.

“Golf is a funny sport and if you don’t focus on your actual game, you can do great things sometimes. I am happy with the way I played.”

Chinese Taipei’s Lee Chieh-po (67) was the best finisher from the home country with a solo fourth.

Korea’s latest star Yubin Jang, who was handpicked by Iron Heads GC captain Kevin Na to join his LIV Golf League team later in the year and has three wins in his home country, showed a glimpse of his massive talent when he aced the par-three eighth with an eight iron from 185 yards on Saturday.

The 22-year-old Jang eventually finished tied 20th after a disappointing double bogey on the last on Sunday.