By Olle Nordberg, Former Asian Tour and European Tour professional

The Tournament

The Thailand Open was inaugurated in 1965 and is one of the oldest national Opens in Asia. The trophy is one of the most recognizable in golf with three elephants holding up a giant silver golf ball. Prizemoney for 2019 is US$300,000 of which the winner’s share will be US$54,000.

Past winners include Thai greats Boonchu Ruangkit and Prayad Marksaeng, as well as international stars of yesteryear such as Australians Graham Marsh and two-time Major winner David Graham.

The event came back to the Asian Tour schedule in 2017 after an eight-year hiatus, and the local contingent has proven very difficult to beat with Rattanon Wannasirichan claiming the title in 2017 and Panuphol Pittayarat in 2018.

Last year’s edition saw Thai players grab the top five spots in the tournament and also had seven out of the top 10 finishers in the event.

Last year Panuphol, also known at Coconut or just Coco on Tour, held off compatriot Poom Saksansin to win the title by a single shot after shooting scores of 67, 64, 66 and 70 for a score of 13-under-par 267.

The Course

Thai Country Club is one of the premier courses in Thailand with perfectly manicured fairways and smooth fast greens, and the club has won multiple awards for its clubhouse, F&B and well-appointed locker rooms.

It is also one of the few courses in Bangkok that has a true “club atmosphere”, due to an extensive events schedule with member tournaments and other social activities such as charity events etc. that promote membership interaction.

The course will this year play to 7,198 yards as a par of 71 with the fourth hole converted to a par-four, whereas last year’s championship played as a par-70 with the fourth and seventh holes converted to par- fours.

New tees have been built on the 11^th and 18^th holes adding length, and especially on number 18 this might make a big difference on Sunday afternoon.

The prevailing wind this time of year should be into the players face from the left, and if the pin is tucked back into the far-left corner of the green it will make the approach very demanding as there is a bunker guarding the front left and water right behind the green.

Adding 20 yards to the hole, and essentially two clubs on the approach shot, it would be a treacherous pin to attack with a mid-iron or longer. The shot would demand pinpoint accuracy and a very soft landing in order to hold the green and staying out of the water.

An existing back-tee that was not used during 2017 and 2018 will now be used on number 10, which will also add 50 yards to the hole.

The course will however offer up plenty of birdie chances as it’s not overly long by modern Tour standards. The main trouble off the tee will be the rough which can be thick in spots, and the greens that can play very firm if they are dried out and it doesn’t rain during the week.

Players will likely need to shoot some low scores to have a chance at winning the title, as shown by the 267 (-13) and 263 (-21) winning scores in 2018 and 2017 respectively.

The Contenders

Panuphol Pittayarat

Defending champion Panuphol will be trying to retain the title on his home course, and he has proven the last two years that it fits his game like a glove: a win last year and a tied-second in 2017.

Starting out the year with a tied-ninth at the SMBC Singapore Open it remains his only top-10 this season, but with over US$106,000 in earnings he is still inside the top-30 on the Order of Merit.

Known as a very solid ball-striker Panuphol is always dangerous when his putter gets hot, and if recent history at Thai Country Club is any guide to who will be the man to beat this week, he is at the top of the list.

Suradit Yongcharoenchai

The winner of the last Asian Tour event, Mercuries Taiwan Masters, has had a solid season with top-10’s in September at the Yeangder TPC and Classic Golf and Country Club International Championship in addition to the win last month.

At number nine on the Order of Merit with just over US$232,000 he is the highest ranked player in the field this week and will be looking to continue his good form of late.

Miguel Tabuena

A player with one of the most complete games on the Asian Tour, Tabuena narrowly missed out on his third career Asian Tour title in Taipei last month. Bogeying the last two holes to finish one stroke behind the winner, he would dearly like to make amends with a win this week in Thailand.

The Filipino also posted a fifth-place finish at the Sarawak Championship in August, and with over US$146,000 he is currently ranked 16^th on the Order of Merit.

Ajeetesh Sandhu

The Indian has come close to winning twice this season with a second at the Bangabandhu Cup in April, and a tied-second at the Mercuries Taiwan Masters where a double bogey on the 16^th hole on Sunday derailed his bid for a second career Asian Tour title.

Sandhu ranks highly in the Greens in Regulation (GIR) stat this year with 71.3%, which should serve him well this week. He is currently 15^th on the Order of Merit with just over US$157,000.

Kosuke Hamamoto

One of the top rookies this season, Kosuke came close to winning in his first season on tour when he finished second to Yikeun Chang at the Yeangder TPC in September, and he also posted a tied-10^th at the Bank BRI Indonesia Open in August. A very impressive start to his career for the young Thai.

One of the highest ranked in the GIR stat this year with 74.4%, he also has one of the best scrambling percentages with 67.5%. With over US$88,000 in earnings Kosuke has already secured his playing rights for next season, and a maiden win this week at Thai Country Club should not come as a surprise to anyone.

Rashid Khan

The two-time Asian Tour winner in 2014 has been in great form this season while playing on a country exemption after losing his card in 2018.

Khan has posted four top-10’s in only six starts on the Asian Tour, plus two wins back home on the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI), and is coming off top-fives in his last two events: a tied-second at the Classic Golf and Country Club International Championship and a tied-fifth at the Mercuries Taiwan Masters.

Near the top of the list in both GIR (73.2%) and Putts/GIR (1.73) and with his playing rights for 2020 already locked up, Khan looks ready to get back into the winner’s category once again.

Joohyung Kim

The 17-year-old Korean recently earned a battlefield promotion from the Asian Development Tour (ADT) to the Asian Tour by winning three ADT events in the same season and looks very much like a future star player.

In addition to these three wins, Kim posted a third-place finish at the Bank BRI Indonesia Open and has recorded eight other top-10’s on the Asian Development Tour and All Thailand Golf Tour in 2019.

It will be very interesting to see if he can bring his winning ways from the Asian Development Tour to the Asian Tour the rest of the season.

By Olle Nordberg, Former Asian Tour and European Tour professional

This week is the start of PGA Tour’s Asian Swing with the CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges on Jeju island in Korea, and for the Asian Tour members taking part this week, or in the following two events the ZOZO Championship in Japan and WGC-Champions in China, they truly have a chance to catapult their careers to the next level of professional golf.

Not only do all the events offer prize money equal to or in excess of US$9,750,000, no cuts and huge Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points, but also maybe more importantly for players aspiring to play on the PGA Tour, FedEx Cup points.

The Asian Tour members in the field at CJ Cup this week in Korea are Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Jazz Janewattananond, Yikeun Chang, K.J. Choi, Soomin Lee, Taehee Lee, Sanghyun Park and Kyongjun Moon, and they will be battling it out with defending champion and world number one Brooks Koepka among others.

At next week’s ZOZO Championship in Japan we will have Jazz Janewattanaond, Yosuke Asaji, Sanghuyn Park, Shaun Norris and Tomoharu Otsuki flying the Asian Tour flag, playing against a stellar field that includes Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Hideki Matsuyama.

For the following week’s WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai, Jazz Janewattanaond, Scott Hend, Jbe Kruger and Masahiro Kawamura have qualified via the Asian Tour’s Order of Merit. We will also see members Kurt Kitayama and Justin Harding making it into the event based on their Race to Dubai ranking on the European Tour, and Jake McLeod from the PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit.

Starting with the importance of OWGR points, this week has a projected 52 points going to the winner compared to 16 for most Asian Tour events. This means for example that the lone Asian Tour member participating in all three Asian Swing events, Jazz Janewattananond, could crack the top-50 on the OWGR with a top-five finish this or any of the following two weeks. The top-50 mark will be very important at the end of the year as it means that an invitation to The Masters Tournament in April next year will be forthcoming in the mail.

For the players trying to use their Asian Tour performance as a springboard to the PGA Tour without having to spend a year on the Korn Ferry Tour, collecting FedEx Cup points is maybe the most important part of playing these events.

The system the PGA Tour uses to qualify for their Tour is different than most, since there is no Q-School access directly to the Tour. You either have to be in the top-25 of the Korn Ferry Tour points list or the top-25 of the three event Korn Ferry Tour Finals points list.

One way to get in this Finals series is to have equal to or more FedEx Cup points than the 200^th player in the FedEx Cup Standings at the end of the 2020 PGA Tour season, and this year it took 95 points to get in the Korn Ferry Finals series.

A solo-sixth in any of the three events would be worth 100-105 points and surpass this mark, although there is no guarantee that it would be exactly the same points needed to qualify next season.

Another mark to aim for is 150th on the 2019 FedEx Cup points list, as this would entitle players to “Special Temporary Membership” on the PGA Tour for the 2020 season. In this case 288 points will be needed to reach this status, and this would allow a player unlimited starts and invites to PGA Tour events which is otherwise capped at 12 events and seven sponsor’s invites respectively per season.

This might be more important than you would think, because it was an issue that double Asian Tour winner Justin Harding ran into this year trying to secure his PGA Tour card. In good shape on the FedEx Cup points list after a tied-12^th at The Masters but shy of Temporary Membership status, he was forced to skip events he was eligible for to not go over the 12-event maximum ahead of upcoming Majors and WGC’s.

Of course, the most important number would be to earn enough FedEx Cup points to be in the top-125 at the end of next season and be fully exempt for the following, and in the 2019 this took 376 points. Not something that you could earn with one hot week as even a solo-second at either of these three events would only make 300-315 points.

Looking at a couple scenarios using our Order of Merit leader Jazz as an example since he is the only one playing all three events:

• A solo-sixth finish in all three events would give him 305 FedEx Cup points and be eligible for Special Temporary Membership status and unlimited events and invites.
• A solo-fourth finish in all three events would earn him 410 FedEx Cup points which likely would be enough to become a full PGA Tour member for the 2021 season.

Even if these high marks are not met at the conclusion of these three big events, a top finish or two would definitely give a player a head start as several of them will likely be playing other events during the 2020 season where they would be able to pick up points.

By Olle Nordberg, Former Asian Tour and European Tour professional

The Tournament

The Mercuries Taiwan Masters is the longest consecutively running full-field event on the Asian Tour, having been part of the schedule since 2004. Inaugurated in 1987 the tournament has seen many winners that are well known to Asian golf-fans, such as Thaworn Wiratchant, Boonchu Ruangkit, Lu Wen-teh, Scott Hend, Gerry Norquist and Hsieh Min-nan.

Hsieh Min-nan, or “Tony Hsieh” as he is also known, is one of the true legends of golf in Chinese Taipei. He won this event in 1992 at the age of 52, and incredibly also made the cut in 2010 at the age of 70 when he finished tied for 47^th. A remarkable feat against a field where many players were less than half his age!

Tournament host Mr. George Wong is graciously offering up prize money of US$900,000 this year, an increase of US$50,000 from last year, of which US$180,000 will go to the champion.

Last year’s event was won by first-time winner Adilson Da Silva of Brazil who held off Berry Henson and Lin Wen-tang to win by a shot on seven-under-par 281.

The Course

The Taiwan Golf and Country Club, or “Tamsui” as most of the players call it, is an old-school Asian course with tree-lined fairways requiring precision off the tee. An ability to work the ball both ways also helps since there are some doglegs to navigate.

The greens are also notoriously difficult to read, as the strong grain as well as the slope has to be taken into consideration. This will give players with past experience on these putting-surfaces an advantage over first timers and players used to bent grass greens.

The course plays to a par of 72 at 6,923 yards, so it’s not necessarily a course where power off the tee will be a big factor. Keeping the ball in the fairway however will be, as proven by famously accurate driver of the ball Da Silva last year.

The Contenders

Adilson Da Silva

Defending champion Da Silva will likely be a tough guy to beat this week, as his record from the last few years of the tournament has been outstanding. In addition to wining last year, he also finished tied-second in 2017 and tied-third in 2015.

Although he is yet to record a top-10 finish on the Asian Tour this season, a driving accuracy percentage of 84.10% so far this season should give Da Silva a great chance to excel on this course once again.

Yikeun Chang

One of the most in-form players recently on the Asian Tour with a win at Yeangder TPC and a runner-up the week before, Chang also has a lot to play for this week.

Currently in seventh place in the WGC-HSBC Champions qualification standings that end this week, he needs at least a solo-third finish this week to surpass Masahiro Kawamura who currently holds the last spot.

Not an easy task, but he’s certainly playing well enough to be up to the challenge.

Scott Vincent

One of the top contenders every week he tees it up, Vincent came close to getting his breakthrough Asian Tour win at the Shinhan Donghae Open two weeks ago after finishing third.

Vincent is in good form and has had good results at this course the last two years with a tied-seventh in 2018 and a tied-second in 2017.

Add a win on the AbemaTV Tour in Japan earlier this year and six other top-10s this season, and the case for the Zimbabwean gets even more solid.

As with Chang above, Vincent also needs to finish no worse than third for a chance to qualify for the WGC-HSBC Champions.

Lu Wei-chih

With a tied-eight in the Asia-Pacific Diamond Cup as his best result so far in 2019, Lu came close to a top finish again last week in the Panasonic Open Golf Championship in Japan.

In tied-second after two rounds and only one shot out of the lead, Lu was looking for another top finish until a poor round on Sunday derailed his bid.

Having won this event in 2016 and a tied-ninth in 2018 after coming back from brain surgery, Lu will have all the necessary experience to challenge for this title again this year.

Rashid Khan

With three top-10s this year on the Asian Tour and two wins at home on the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI), Khan is getting back to the form that saw him become a two-time winner on the Asian Tour in 2014.

Currently 27^th on the Order of Merit with US$83,467 Khan has already regained his Tour card that he lost last year, and the tied-second in his last event could mean he is ready to come back into the winner’s circle once again.

Lin Wen-tang

The winner of this event in 2009 and with three top-10s here the last three years, Lin certainly has all the necessary local knowledge to do well again.

He was the leader after 54 holes at last month’s Yeangder TPC outside of Taipei and had his best tournament of the season finishing fourth. Always a threat playing on home soil.