Lee enjoys home win
June 29: Korea’s Seungyul Noh enjoyed his best result so far this season when he closed with a one-under-par 69 to finish in tied-11th place at the Travelers Championship on Sunday.
Noh had missed a consecutive run of cuts in his previous four events on the PGA TOUR. But showed glimpses of his talent that led to him being crowned the youngest Asian Tour Order of Merit champion in 2010 by carding rounds of 64, 68, 66 and 69 to end the week with a four-day total of 13-under-par 267
The 29-year-old was six shots back of American Dustin Johnson, who won the Travelers Championship to end a long drought and extend his career-long season victory streak to 13.
Ends.
June 28: Korea’s Seungyul Noh, the 2010 Asian Tour Order of Merit champion, continued his good run of form by signing for a third round four-under-par 66 to take a share of seventh place at the Travelers Championship on Saturday.
It is a welcome return to form for Noh, who missed the cuts in his last four starts on the PGA TOUR and is now trying to keep his card on a major medical exemption (national service).
The Korean made his comeback to tournament play after fulfilling his military commitments. at the Shinhan Donghae Open last September.
Noh had opened with a 64 and followed that up with rounds of 68 and 66 for a three-day total of 12-under-par 198, to lie six shots back of third round leader Brendon Todd of the United States.
The 29-year-old made history on the Asian Tour in 2010 when he became the youngest player to win the Order of Merit that year.
He is also the third youngest player to win on the Asian Tour after Thailand’s Chinnarat Phadungsil and Korea’s Kim Dae-sub when he won the Midea China Classic in 2008 at 17 years and 143 days.
Sentosa, Singapore June 19: A big talent, Cameron Smith who was once touted as the future star when he first made his presence felt on the Asian Tour, is now a shining star.
Having the world’s elite players for company on the PGA TOUR where he has since notched two wins and made his maiden President’s Cup appearance last year, the world number 38 is now making big strides. Smith’s path to stardom began with a standout Asian Tour rookie season in 2014, and as they say, the rest is history.
Along with reigning Asian Tour Order of Merit champion Jazz Janewattanond of Thailand, the 26-year-old Aussie will tee up at this week’s RBC Heritage on the PGA TOUR. But as they continue to scale the higher echelons of the sport in the United States today, the starting point of their golfing journey can be traced back to the coastal town of Hua Hin in Thailand.
As a 20-year-old then, Smith competed and ended his gruelling Asian Tour Qualifying School test by finishing tied-18th to earn his Tour card in 2014. The Australian then decided to seek his fortunes on the Asian Tour early as he had said: “it was ‘good to stay close to home where I’ll be able to see my coach and trainer regularly.”
Smith stumbled initially in his first start at the Solaire Open when he missed the cut after rounds of 75 and 75 but quickly flew under the radar in his next event when he snatched the third round lead at the CIMB Niaga Indonesian Masters. Although he eventually settled for a share of second place, that superlative performance caught the attention of many and also signalled the rise of the young Australian on the Asian Tour.
His stats in his rookie year on the Asian Tour were indeed staggering and showed he was primed for a host of wonderful things to come. Apart from a tied-61st result at the Queen’s Cup after his exploits in Jakarta, Smith, who took up the sport at three under the influence of his father, never finished outside the top-10 in his next six starts on the Tour.
That included a tied-fifth finish at the lucrative Asian Tour and PGA TOUR sanctioned CIMB Classic in Malaysia which gave the Australian his first big break into the United States that year.
“Playing on the Asian Tour did open up a few doors for me. I ended up having a good year, so it was nice,” said Smith.
He may not have clinched that breakthrough on the Asian Tour, but his results were enough to see him end his rookie season in fifth place on the Order of Merit in 2014 and placed him on the fast track to success. Playing against the region’s best players and even surpassing some of the known veterans on Tour was a timely confidence booster for the Aussie.
INDONESIA JAKARTA April 26 Cameron Smith of Australia in action during the the third round of the US$750,000 CIMB Niaga Indonesian Masters at the Royale Jakarta Golf Club in Jakarta. The Asian Tour event was held from April 24th-27th,2014. / ASIAN TOUR / KHALID REDZA
Armed with renewed confidence from his exploits on the Asian Tour, Smith continued to hit his stride and took his game to the United States. He showed no signs of nerves when he teed up for his first Major at the U.S. Open in 2015 and made all the right headlines with his tied-fourth finish at Chambers Bay in Washington D.C.
“I had a great experience at the US Open. It was a dream finish for me. Playing on the Asian Tour last year has helped a lot as I was able to get into the moment and just do my own thing out there,” said Smith.
That result also gave him a temporary special membership on the PGA TOUR, secured his place among the game’s elite and catapulted him into the top-100 on the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time in his career.
Currently ranked 38th in the world, Smith now plies his trade regularly in the United States where he has also set up his home in Jacksonville, Florida. He has already started his 2020 season in the best possible way by winning his first event at the Sony Open in Hawaii. It is a PGA TOUR title he can finally call his own, having shared the team title with Jonas Blixt at the Zurich Classic in New Orleans in 2017.
For someone who once confessed he could be working at the bar if his professional career in golf did not take off, Smith has come a long way since he first stepped up to the tee as a soft-spoken 20-year-old at the Asian Tour Qualifying School in 2014.
And like many who have made their mark on the Asian Tour before going on to advance their career internationally, nostalgia always fills the air whenever he is back in Asia.
“I love coming over here. I played probably 18 months on the Asian Tour, so I love coming back to where it all began,” said Smith after another noteworthy tied-third finish at The CJ Cup in Korea last year.
Sentosa, June 18: The 18th hole of the Composite Course at the Hong Kong Golf Club, Fanling, has been the setting for a wealth of gripping and well-documented drama over the decades.
The impressive piece of golf course architecture as Simon Wilson attests, lends itself perfectly to a compelling finish, thanks to its design and sheer sense of history.
Though not a long par-four, by modern-day standards, it demands the utmost respect, and requires the fullest care and consideration — so much so that it will be featured in a forthcoming article by the Asian Tour’ called: “Asia’s toughest golf holes”.
HONG KONG-Crowds pictured on Friday January 10, 2020 during round two of the Hong Kong Open at the Fanling Golf Club, Fanling, Hong Kong, the Asian Tour USD$ 1 million event is the season opener. Picture by Paul Lakatos / Asian Tour.
The hole’s statistics at this year’s Hong Kong Open, tell a familiar story: measuring 410 yards, it was ranked the second hardest with an average score of 4.281; there were just 40 birdies, 215 pars, 101 bogeys, 19 double-bogeys and 2 “others”.
Australian Wade Ormsby’s dominant wire-to-wire four-shot victory in the event saw him able to negotiate the last hole without the heavy burden of a narrow lead.
But that is not very often the case for a hole deeply ingrained in the rich history of Asian golf, and viewed as one of the great amphitheatres of tournament golf globally.
Since the Asian Tour was launched in 2004, Fanling’s closing hole has witnessed the full gamut of emotions and eventualities.
And one of the game’s great personalities, Miguel Angel Jimenez, has been one of the main actors in the pure theatre that has unfolded there.
The Spaniard has tasted victory a record equalling four times: in 2004, 2007, 2012 and 2013.
His most recent win was arguably his most spectacular when on an exhilarating final day he holed an 18-foot birdie putt on the first extra hole to defeat Welshman Stuart Manley and Prom Meesawat from Thailand.
He said: “I love this place, I love this golf course, I love the tournament.”
When he triumphed in 2007 it was in very different circumstances; equally as exciting bur error-strewn and excruciating to watch.
He emerged victorious for the second time but only after a truly remarkable battle against Swede Robert Karlsson.
Tied for the lead playing the last, Jimenez was the early favourite after finding the back of the green in two while Karlsson’s approach failed to find the green and fell back into a grassy knoll in front of the putting surface.
To the dismay of the large crowd assembled, the Swede fluffed his chip shot and failed to make the green, before chipping his next shot to five feet.
Jimenez, facing a tough downhill putt and perhaps sensing victory too early, left his putt six feet short and then, to more groans from the crowd, promptly proceeded to knock his par effort past the cup.
It left Karlsson with an opportunity to make a bogey five and force a play-off but more agony was to follow when he missed again to complete his calamitous finish. Jiménez knocked in his bogey putt from one-and-a-half feet to seal the victory and bring to a conclusion one of the more perplexing finales to the championship.
“I like everything about this place,” said the Spaniard. “I like the golf course, it is an old fashioned course which provides a great test and I also like the heat, like Malaga. I am like a fish in water when it’s hot, it is where I am meant to be. I also like the people here, I feel very comfortable.”
Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy is another of the game’s greats who has played a significant role in the history of Fanling’s final hole.
231108-HONG KONG-LIN WEN TANG-Lin Wen Tang of Chinese Taipei, winner of the UBS Hong Kong Open, 2008 on 23 November, 2008 at the Hong Kong Golf Club, Fanling, Hong Kong. Picture by Paul Lakatos/UBS.
In 2008, he was on the receiving end of what can only be described as a golfing epiphany by Chinese Taipei’s Lin Wen-tang.
In arguably one of the event’s greatest-ever finishes he defeated McIlroy and Italian Francesco Molinari in a sudden-death play-off.
Lin had missed a chance to win the tournament in normal time when his six-foot birdie putt on the 72nd green slipped past the edge of the hole.
Molinari was eliminated at the first extra hole when he could only manage a par compared to birdies from the other two players. Lin’s birdie was the result of one of the finest shots seen on 18 in the Hong Kong Open: after hooking his tee shot he then played his approach out of trees, over water and a bunker. His shot not only found the green but finished just feet from the pin.
On the second extra hole, McIlroy also went left from the tee and had to display his powers of recovery to find the green. But Lin then piled on the pressure from the middle of the fairway, firing his approach in to just a foot. When McIlroy’s birdie effort missed, the tournament was Lin’s.
“Now I can re-assure myself that what I am doing is right,” said an ecstatic Lin.
“To hit two threes in a play-off, you can’t beat that,” added McIlroy.
McIlroy also finished runner-up the following year, behind Frenchman Gregory Bourdy, and was sixth in 2010 before finally securing the title in 2011 in remarkable fashion.
McIlroy, who at the time was the reigning US Open champion, holed out from a greenside bunker at the last to finish two clear of France’s Gregory Havret,
“I’ve wanted to win this tournament so badly since that play-off in 2008,” said McIlroy.
“I’ve had to wait a couple of years to get there, but to get this trophy in my hands is very special. I just hit a perfect bunker shot, and once it landed on the green, it never looked anywhere else and I think you could see how much that meant to me,” added McIlroy,
Over the last few seasons three Australians have also produced heroics on the final hole.
In 2014, Scott Hend and Filipino Angelo Que fought a thrilling back-nine battle which culminated in the Australian winning in extra time.
HONG KONG – OCTOBER 19: Scott Hend of Australia celebrates with the trophy after winning the final round of the 2014 Hong Kong open at The Hong Kong Golf Club on October 19, 2014 in Hong Kong, Hong Kong. (Photo by Ian Walton/Getty Images)
Two years later, Sam Brazel birdied the last to beat Rafa Cabrera Bello from Spain before Ormsby started his love affair with the tournament by winning in 2017.
Ormsby had a two-shot lead playing 18 but three-putted which opened the door for Cabrera Bello, playing the group behind, to force a playoff. However, the Spaniard finished second for the successive year when he made bogey after finding a green side bunker.
Perhaps, the greatest ever finish at Hong Kong’s national Open came in 1994 when little-known American Craig McClellan holed his second shot for an eagle two to force a play-off with South African star David Frost.
Frost overcame the American on the first hole of sudden-death but the reverberations of McClellan’s wonder shot lasted long after the winning putt was holed.
Just which is the best finish at the popular tournament is open for discussion but it will be complicated by the many more dramatic finishes in the future that help define the Hong Kong Open.
Sentosa, June 17: There is something quite ambassadorial about India’s golf star Anirban Lahiri writes Simon Wilson.
Thoughtful, calm and articulate he has been a fine representative for his country while playing on the PGA Tour over the past five years.
It is therefore a significant blow to all and sundry that Lahiri has been, as he says, “marooned” at home in India because of the coronavirus pandemic lockdown and unable to make it back for the re-start of the PGA Tour.
Lahiri played in the Arnold Palmer Invitational in early March and headed back to India to work on his game with long-time coach Vijay Divecha in Ahmedabad before playing in the Hero Indian Open — an event he proudly won in 2015 and put him on course to claiming the Asian Tour Order of Merit title.
But as they say, even the best laid plans sometimes go awry: three days after he arrived, quarantine was introduced for international travellers, before the nation went into lockdown and his national Open was postponed.
“We still don’t have a D-Day for when they will resume international flights,” said Lahiri — who, sadly for Asian viewers, will be missing from the field at this week’s RBC Heritage on the PGA Tour.
The young man, nicknamed “Baan”, was stuck in Ahmedabad for a period, before being able to get to his house in Bangalore with his family.
His golf clubs arrived late because of logistical issues across India but he has finally been able to brandish them over recent weeks at The Eagleton Golf Resort in Bangalore — which was his home club before he moved to the United States.
“I went two months, (actually) about 75 days, before I hit a ball, and that’s probably the longest since I was in 10th grade. It was about the longest break I have ever taken,” said Lahiri, “There were times when you want to tear your hair out as you are used to being on the go all the time.”
JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY – SEPTEMBER 25: Anirban Lahiri poses for his official headshot prior to the start of the Presidents Cup at Liberty National Golf Club on September 25, 2017 in Jersey City, New Jersey. (Photo by Caryn Levy/PGA TOUR)
Like many across the globe the Indian has used the “time off” to rest and recalibrate and he says: “Spending time with my 16-month-old daughter, has been very precious to me”.
He adds: “It has been quite frustrating but it has also been an opportunity for me to hit the pause button, spend some quality time with my family and friends, do some introspection, work on the mental side and work on the physical side, as much as possible.
“Given the situation there are limitations to what you can do but you try and do the most you can, within the confines of your house. But now that I can play golf again it feels great. I didn’t think that just playing golf can feel this great.”
Lahiri is at the helm of the latest generation of Indian golfers breaking boundaries and inspiring a nation. When he was growing up his idols were Jeev Milkha Singh, who he feels was the “global torch bearer” due to his success all over the world, and Arjun Atwal, whom he calls “the PGA Tour stalwart” — as he remains the only Indian to win on the PGA Tour, thanks to his success in the 2010 Wyndham Championship.
Lahiri triumphed seven-times on the Asian Tour before departing to play on the PGA Tour — where he impressed all by making the FedExCup Playoffs in 2016, 2017 and 2018.
In 2015, he became the first Indian to be selected to play for the International Team in the Presidents Cup and that year he finished tied fifth at the PGA Championship — the best result by an Indian golfer in a Major.
In 2016, he also represented India when golf returned to the Olympics after a hiatus of 112-years and the following year he was again selected for the Presidents Cup. The list of accolades and achievements for a player who turns 33 on June 29 is extremely impressive.
But as all golfers know though form is only temporary, and Lahiri is currently experiencing a dip in fortunes.
He failed to make the FedExCup Playoffs last year for the first time but was able to regain his playing status thanks to finishing strongly at the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. This season, before Covid-19 struck with such devastating effect, he was also facing a similar battle with his form; he was ranked 209th having played 12 events.
“The last 18 months leading up to Covid, have been very, very poor. I have played nowhere near my own expectations, it’s definitely been something I want to work on and fix. That was why I came here to spend some extended time with my coach,” said the Indian.
“We set up a programme to tackle all the issues that we felt were causing my level to drop, and we started working on these things but then lockdown happened. There is a lot of unfinished business and some work to be done for me, I am going to try and make the most of the situation. I need to try and get back to my best golf which has been missing for the past 18 months of so.”
Lahiri feels his iron play has been his “Achilles heel” of late — which, ironically, was for so long one of the hallmarks of his game. With that component of his game not firing as well as it normally does he is not making enough birdies, something that is very costly on the world’s elite circuit.
He says: “I’m caught in the situation now where in a way it’s not terrible that I can’t get back because I have work to do.”
Few doubt that he will recapture the magic that has seen him achieve so much success in the game.
After a brilliant amateur career — he played for his country in the Asian Games (he and Gaganjeet Bhullar were part of the team that claimed silver in Doha in 2006) Eisenhower Trophy, and Nomura Cup — he turned professional in 2007 and it wasn’t long before he triumphed on India’s burgeoning professional tour, winning twice in 2009.
In 2011, he claimed his maiden victory on the Asian Tour at the Panasonic Open on home soil, marking the start of an assault on some of the biggest titles in the region.
Third on the Asian Tour Order of Merit in 2013, second in 2014, he topped the chart the following year thanks to two career-defining victories in February, first the Malaysian Open and then the Indian Open — both events jointly sanctioned with the European Tour.
“Oh, I miss the Asian Tour, I have a lot of friends there. There is no other Tour like the Asian Tour in terms of the camaraderie and the friendships you make, and the experiences you have. It is unique, people in Asia are unique and it’s just a pleasure to enjoy your time on the Tour,” said Lahiri.
“It’s a great stepping stone, you compete against some really good players, play in different conditions, you learn a lot of new things, you experience so many different cultures, different ways of life, it teaches you a lot of things, outside of golf as well. In Europe and the US you play in a similar environment. I really, really enjoyed my time on the Asian Tour.
“It really helped me to become who I am and I made some very deep and lasting friendships. I still look forward to coming back and playing every opportunity I can.”
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – AUGUST 12: Anirban Lahiri of India watches his tee shot on the 16th hole during the second round of the golf on Day 7 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Olympic Golf Course on August 12, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images)
For the moment Lahiri is focused on returning to form on the PGA Tour; something which will allow him to achieve his goals of re-establishing his position on the Official World Golf Ranking, playing in all four Majors and helping to further promote the game in India — something that is very important to him.
He has certainly been making the most of this unexpected period of downtime: on Instagram you can find “Cooking with the Lahiris” videos.
“It was just an idea that some of my friends came up with to kill time during lockdown. You have seen guys giving tips, hosting talk shows and a lot of us have been cooking,” explains Lahiri, who has been a vegetarian for two years.
When it comes to cooking, he says he is a “10 handicapper while my wife is a professional”.
With his skills now sharpened in the kitchen, he will also be looking to serve-up some Lahiri signature specials when he returns to the Tour.
Ends.
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