Taichi Kho says he can “internalise a lot of positives” after his best result of the season so far at last week’s Kolon Korea Open presented by ELORD – which has put him in an excellent frame of mine ahead of two important weeks.

The 23-year-old Hong Kong number one finished in a tie for 13^th on Sunday – a strong performance against Korea’s best players on one of their toughest courses, Woo Jeong Hills Country Club.

He shot rounds of 73-67-71-73 to finish on even par and played the final round in a high-profile group, consisting of Korea’s Yubin Jang, who was equal third, and Miguel Tabuena from the Philippines, who finished fifth.

Korea’s Minkyu Kim closed with a 66 win by three on eleven under.

“It is good progress, that is all I could really ask for,” said Kho, who claimed the gold medal at last year’s Huanzhou Asian Games, and earlier in the year the World City Championship presented by Hong Kong Golf Club to become the first player from Hong Kong to win on the Asian Tour.

Taichi Kho pictured with his Asian Games gold medal last year. Picture by Paul Lakatos/Asian Tour.

“As a golfer you always look back and think about the things you could have done better but I can definitely internalise a lot of positives from the week.

“My game is heading in the right direction, which is great, and I think it is a big step forward.

“It was not an easy golf course. The mental challenge seeing the golf course is one thing, and also the physical challenge. Playing in the rough, greens are firm, it rained hard on day three, there were a lot of challenging elements, so I am pleased to have observed myself go through the week and see how I handled all those situations.”

Jet-setting Kho flew out on Sunday night to Switzerland where he is playing in a qualifying event this week for the Omega European Masters. He’ll also play in a qualifier for The Open in the UK before travelling to the International Series Morocco next week.

He played in The Open last year for the first time, missing the cut, thanks to his victory in Hong Kong.

Taichi Kho at The Open last year. Picture by Warren Little/Getty Images.

He explained: “I just want to give myself opportunities to play everywhere. It is a lot of travel, but I definitely enjoy it. The Asian Tour is putting up a great schedule at the back end of the year, so I am really looking forward to it.”

His best other performance in 2024 came at the New Zealand Open presented by Sky Sport back in February, where finished joint 14^th. He is currently in 48^th place on the Asian Tour, with much to play for.

“The season has been pretty solid so far. I have not put in too many strong results yet, but I feel like the game is heading in the right direction. I have been trying a couple different things just to see if that can help me go in the right direction,” he said.

“It’s weird with golf, when you try to get better you end up going back to what worked before. I feel like I am maturing as a golfer and figuring it out as I go along. Overall, I have been hitting it good all year.”

Korean Minkyu Kim claimed his second Kolon Korea Open presented by ELORD in the space of two years today to draw a line under a couple of challenging seasons.

He closed with a five-under-par 66 at Woo Jeong Hills Country Club, just south of Seoul – the scene of his win in 2022 – to finish on 11-under for a three-shot victory over compatriot Younghan Song, the overnight leader who carded a 71.

Koreans Yubin Jang, who returned a best of the day 65, and Kyungnam Kang, in with a 71, finished in a tie for third, one shot back.

Filipino Miguel Tabuena fired a 67 to take sole possession of fifth a stroke further behind, his best result of the season.

Open bound: Minkyu Kim and Younghan Song.

The result means both Kim and Song secured the two places available in year’s Open Championship at Royal Troon in July, as the event is part of the Open Qualifying Series.

Kim, aged 23 and a professional since 2017, started Sunday two behind Song but moved two ahead of playing-partner Song at the turn, with Jang three back. He’d toured the front in three-under with an eagle, on eight, two birdies and a bogey.

By hole 12, which he birdied, he had a three-shot cushion, but it looked like he was in trouble on the par-three 13^th following an unexpected and uncharacteristically lose tee shot. His ball landed in the water in front of the green but somehow it popped up and finished on the edge of the island green, in semi-rough. He capitalised on his good fortune and got up and down for a par and quickly put that behind him by making a birdie on the next to go four ahead.

He dropped a shot on the 16^th and with Jang, playing two groups ahead, carding a birdie on 17 it meant the gap was down to two.

However, a confident birdie on the par-five last sealed the deal for Kim. Song also made birdie on 18 to snatch second place from Jang, who made bogey there, and Kang – second here last year and narrowly missing out on another trip to The Open.

Yubin Jang.

Two years ago Kim was on the crest of a wave after winning his National Open by beating countryman Mingyu Cho in a three-hole play-off, but two months later he was in a car crash on the eve of the International Series Korea on Jeju Island.

It was two months before he could play again and he has gradually worked his way back since, including finishing equal fourth here last year.

However, this month has proven to be pivotal for Kim as he won the Descente Korea Munsingwear Matchplay at the start of month for just his second win on home soil before today’s victory validated all his hard work.

It is the sixth win of his career which began with three wins in 2017 – two on the Euro Pro Tour and one on the Jamega Pro Tour – before he made global headlines the following season with victory in the D+D Real Czech Challenge to become the European Challenge Tour’s youngest winner at the age of 17.

“I feel like I am dreaming,” said Kim.

“[On hole 13] I tried to hit a fade, but it flew too low. It hit water and came up. I went over and the ball was there.”

When KJ Choi won the SK Telecom Open earlier this year he had a similar incident on an island green in a play-off.

Miguel Tabuena.

Said Kim: “I was thinking about K.J Choi’s SK Telecom Open island shot at that moment. After I survived that I felt I was going to win, and then I birdied the next hole.”

Victory in 2022 also saw him qualify for The Open, played at St Andrews. He did not make the cut but will hope to rectify that this summer.

“I have been to Royal Troon before to watch an Open when I was at junior high school, so I will go there with good memories,” he added.

Tabuena had a chance to win today and was five under for his round after 14, just off the lead, but made his first bogey of the day on 15 and then dropped another shot on the next.

He bounced back on the last hitting a fairway wood into six feet but just missed the eagle putt.

“It was a great week overall; I have been battling some things with my game,” said Tabuena.

“After I missed the cut in Oman this year, I changed my irons and then I lost my confidence. Then a couple of weeks ago I made the switch back to the irons and putter I was using before. I am slowly getting there but my game is trending. Any week you finish top five it’s excellent.”

Hong Kong’s Taichi Kho also had an encouraging week. He signed off with a 73 to tie for 13^th, on even par for the tournament. Like Tabuena it was his best result of 2024.

The Asian Tour has a one week break now before heading to the International Series Morocco, where Thailand’s Jazz Janewattananond will try and defend the title he won in 2022, when the event was last played. The tournament will be played on the Red Course at Royal Golf Dar Es Salam in the capital Rabat once again, from July 4-7.

Korean Younghan Song, best known for his famous win in the Singapore Open in 2016 when he held off then world number one Jordan Spieth from the United States, will have a chance to claim another of the region’s National Opens tomorrow after taking the third-round lead in the Kolon Korea Open presented by ELORD.

Song’s game was in tune despite persistent rain and grey skies all day that replaced the sunshine of the opening two days.

He shot a best of the day four-under-par 67 to move in front on eight-under at Woo Jeong Hills Country Club, to lead by one from compatriot and overnight leader Kang Kyungnam, in with a 72, and two from the 2022 champion Minkyu Kim, who carded a 71.

Kang Kyungnam.

The trio played together in the final pairing with Song edging ahead after a birdie on 18, on a testing day when it rained non-stop. There were two rain delays, at 12.15pm and 2.15pm, with play eventually finishing in fading light at about 8pm local time.

Song, who mainly plays on the Japan Golf Tour, trailed Kang for most of the day, but was a picture of consistency making four birdies and not dropping a shot.

After winning in Singapore further success did not follow but last year he returned to the winners’ circle by winning the Sansan KBC Augusta in Japan.

Kang, also the second-round leader, has come close to winning this tournament on several occasions before. He was second last year, while almost 20 years ago he tied for third in 2006 and finished equal fourth in 2007 – on each occassion at Woo Jeong Hills, home to the event since 2003.

His 2006 attempt saw him shoot an eight-under-par 63 in the second round, which is the course record, also held by four other players.

Three bogeys saw him struggle to hold onto the lead today, while he made two birdies.

Minkyu Kim.

A strong international contingent have an outside chance tomorrow with Filipino Miguel Tabuena and Taichi Kho from Hong Kong in a tie for seventh on two under. Tabuena shot a 68, while Kho fired a 71.

England’s Steve Lewton carded a 73 and is one stroke further back.

Play will commence at 7am tomorrow morning.

The event is once again part of the Open Qualifying Series, meaning the leading two players, not otherwise exempt, will qualifying for the forthcoming Open Championship at Royal Troon Golf Club, to be played from July 18-21.

Total prizemoney for the event is KRW1,400,000,000 (approx. US$1.013 million).

Kyungnam Kang made the most of his affinity for Woo Jeong Hills Country Club today taking the halfway lead in the Kolon Korea Open presented by ELORD.

The Korean, second here last year and the course record holder with four other players, played in the afternoon and shot his second four-under-par 67 for a two-round total of eight-under – an impressive tally on a difficult course.

It gave him a two-shot cushion over compatriot Minkyu Kim, the 2022 champion. Kim, out in the morning session, held the clubhouse lead for much of the day after returning a 65.

Korean Younghan Song (68) is a further two behind, while England’s Steve Lewton (71) is another shot back.

Kang carded an eight-under-par 63 here in 2006 and that is still the course record although a group of players, including Rickie Fowler in 2011, have matched it.

Minkyu Kim.

He made six birdies and two bogeys today and looked in complete control, especially when he made three successive birdies from the fifth.

“I played happily in the same group as Minkyu on the last day last year, so I will use that experience this weekend,” said Kang.

“I am hitting the ball really straight. I used to fade the ball but recently I have stopped putting so much spin on the ball, so it’s staying straight. It’s really helped me a lot with my approach shots.”

His second place finish here 12 months ago saw him secure one of the two places up for grabs in The Open. He went on to miss the cut in the game’s oldest Major but will be targeting another appearance this year as this week’s tournament is once again part of the Open Qualifying Series. Last year’s winner Steve Seungsu Han was the other player who made it through to The Open, but having missed the cut this week, with rounds of 82 and 72, there will be no repeat trip for him.

Kang added: “When I feel like giving up, I remember my experience at the British Open last year and I get my mind together. I want to win a berth again and get back there.”

Forty-one-year-old Kang is an 11-time winner on the Korean PGA Tour, has never won on the Asian Tour and is looking for his first win in Korea since 2021.

Judging on recent form in Korea – he has had six top 20s in his last seven starts – he’ll likely be in the running on Sunday.

Steve Lewton.

Kim’s performance so far is representative of his return to form.

He beat fellow Korean Mingyu Cho in a play-off at Woo Jeong Hills to win here two years ago but two months later he was in a car accident, the resulting injuries meant he was unable to play for several months.

He has been gradually working his way back since, winning on the Korean PGA Tour at the start of the month, in the Descente Korea Munsingwear Matchplay for just his second win on home soil, before a fine round today points to a player back to his best.

He said: “I played well today. It was a better score than I expected. I wasn’t hitting the ball well on the range, but once I got on the course, it worked out.”

Woo Jeong Hills is a notoriously demanding golf course with the championship committee setting it up with penal rough, narrow fairways and perilous putting surfaces but Kim was one of the few players to rise to the challenge.

He started on 10 and made the turn in one under with three birdies and two bogeys but then toured the second half in four under with four birdies.

Jang Jubin.

“When I was talking with other players before the tournament, they said that the difficulty level was getting easier, but the course is still difficult … the set-up, the flagstick positions, etc,” said Kim, who tied for fourth last year and who’s winning score in 2022 was four-under.

“The Korea Open is a big tournament; I think it’s right to play at a challenging golf course like Woo Jeong Hills. I think the challenging setting suits the event.”

Lewton hasn’t missed a cut this year and is playing some of the best golf of his career and will attempt to become the first Englishman to win Korea’s National Open.

“Didn’t play quite as well as yesterday, felt I had a chance to do better,” said Lewton.

“Got off to great start on front nine with eight pars and a birdie, which set me up but dropped a few on the second nine. Missed a few putts I should have made. It’s a tough golf course but I am well placed heading into the weekend”

Hong Kong’s Taichi Kho is starting to put together one of his best tournaments of the year. He fired a 67 and is two under in a tie for sixth with Korea’s Hongtaek Kim (68), winner of the GS Caltex Maekyung Open last month, and countryman Jang Jubin (72).

Two-time Korea Open winner Sangmoon Bae, the joint leader at the start of the day, fired a 74 and is tied on one under.

Total prizemoney for the event is KRW1,400,000,000 (approx. US$1.013 million).

Pictures courtesy of the Korean Golf Association.

Korean Sangmoon Bae (main picture) rolled back the years in the Kolon Korea Open presented by ELORD today, the event he won in 2008 and 2009, taking a share of the lead on the opening day.

He carded a four-under-par 67 at Woo Jeong Hills Country Club, the venue for both of his wins, along with countrymen Kyungnam Kang, second here last year, and Sungyeol Kwon.

England’s Steve Lewton returned a 68 along with Koreans Yubin Jang, who stormed home with an eagle on the iconic par-five 18^th, Taehoon Ok and Jinjae Byun, plus Chinese-Taipei’s Chan Shih-chang.

Bae is based in the United States, where he has triumphed on the US PGA Tour twice and on the Web.com Tour once, and rarely returns to play on home soil.

Kyungnam Kang.

However, he played in the Korean PGA Championship on the Korean PGA Tour at the start of the month, finishing in a tie for second place, and he looks to be in a similar vein of form this week.

He turns 38 tomorrow and is revelling being in the lead in a big event, something that does not happen so often these days, unlike the majority of his brilliant career.

“I’m excited and nervous to compete at the top,” he said.

“There is also some anxiety. So many other great players are in contention. To win you have to play well for four days. I have to play carefully and calmly.”

He started on the back nine and made six birdies in total, including on 17 and 18, and carded two bogeys. He chipped in for two of those birdies, on 10 and 17.

Despite his fine start, he felt his game was far from under control on a golf course set up by the Korean Golf Association to try and mirror Major championship conditions, with fast greens and unforgiving rough.

Sungyeol Kwon.

Said Bae: “My shots with my driver didn’t go the way I wanted them to, I played a lot of shots from the rough and missed plenty of greens. I also struggled with my pitch shots. But overall, I’m happy with the way I played. Those chip ins gave me momentum.”

He also said he is drawing inspiration from Korean legend K.J. Choi after he won the SK Telecom Open in Korea last month at the age of 54 – becoming the oldest golfer to win a tournament on the Korean PGA Tour.

“I watched K.J.’s win and I was inspired. I texted him after the second round and said, ‘you young kids are killing it’. We talked for 10 minutes.”

Bae’s most recent win came at the Albertsons Boise Open on the Web.com Tour in 2018, a year after he had completed his National Service in Korea.

Prior to his near two-year stint with the military, he had established himself as one of his country’s finest players. He triumphed on the PGA Tour in 2013 and 2014, claimed nine titles in Korea, and won three events on both the Asian Tour and Japan Tour.

Lewton’s solid opening round reflects his excellent start to the season which has seen him make the cut in all five of the events he has entered.

Steve Lewton.

“I have only played here once before, last year, and really struggled,” said Lewton, who made a 27-hour trip from his home in Leicester to get here.

“The course is slightly different this year, there is not quite as much rough even though it is still very penal. I came with a slightly different game plan: I didn’t hit nearly as many drivers. I used the driver five times; last year I hit it about 10.”

He is currently in 20^th position on the Asian Tour Order of Merit, having tied for ninth in the season-opening Malaysian Open, his best result of the season to date, while he also finished equal 11^th when the Tour was last in Korea for the GS Caltex Maekyung Open last month.

He added: “I worked hard over the break. I feel like I have played pretty good for three rounds but it’s just one round that just isn’t quite good enough, don’t always know which round it is going to be. My goal this week is to have four consistent rounds. I changed my swing over the break, working with my coach, Corey Vincent, the brother of my caddie, and a 3D coach in the US, on posture and alignment.”

A big football fan, when asked if he planned to watch the England Denmark game in the Euros tonight, which is on at 1 a.m. in Seoul, he replied: “100% yes!”

Thailand’s Chonlatit Chuenboonngam, who was beaten in a sudden-death play-off at the GS Caltex Maekyung Open, is clearly enjoying being back in Korea after shooting a 70.

Korean Hongtaek Kim, the man who beat him to win that event, fired a 73.

Defending champion Seungsu Han from the United States got off to the worst possible start carding an 82.

This year marks the 66^th staging of Korea’s flagship tournament, which has been played at Woo Jeong Hills, an hour outside of the capital Seoul, since 2003.

It is once again part of the Open Qualifying Series, meaning the leading two players, not otherwise exempt, will qualifying for the forthcoming Open Championship at Royal Troon Golf Club, to be played from July 18-21.

Total prizemoney for the event is KRW1,400,000,000 (approx. US$1.013 million).

Photos courtesy of Korean Golf Association.

After two forgettable seasons since winning the Kolon Korea Open in 2022 – the consequence of having to recover from a car crash, a few months after that memorable victory – Minkyu Kim returns to the event this week, here at Woo Jeong Hills Country Club, with renewed hope after a much-needed, morale boosting win on the Korean PGA Tour three weeks ago.

The 23-year-old triumphed in the Descente Korea Munsingwear Matchplay for just his second win on home soil, beating Wooyoung Cho in the final – another young star, who was a member of the Korean team that won gold at last year’s Hangzhou Asian Games.

“I’ve been thirsty for a win, and I’m proud of myself,” said Kim this week.

“But I have a long way to go, so I’m going to take this as a moment of joy, a moment that I cherish, and move on. At the moment, my condition is different every week, so I’m trying to find a good feeling every week.”

2022 champion: Minkyu Kim.

He beat compatriot Mingyu Cho in a back-and-forth three-hole play-off at Woo Jeong Hills to win his national Open.

It was supposed to be the spark that lit the fuse on his career for a player who in 2018 made global headlines with victory in the D+D Real Czech Challenge to become the European Challenge Tour’s youngest winner at the age of 17.

However, just two months later, at the end of August, tragedy struck at the International Series Korea on Jeju Island when he was involved in a car crash. Details of the incident are scant as Kim is not keen to talk about it, but it took him two months to reach the point where he could play golf again.

He explains: “It was an unfortunate accident. I had to miss some tournaments to recover. In the 2023 season, I did have a few chances to win but I missed out. It has just been a very disappointing 2022 and 2023 for me.”

His form has been a far cry from when he won here two years ago. He holed a pressure-packed 10-foot birdie putt on the famous par-five 18^th here on the third play-off hole – the event has adopted a three-hole play-off like The Open as opposed to sudden-death – to overturn a two-shot deficit as Cho made bogey.

“I have so many good memories and feelings here,” said Kim, who tied for fourth place year despite his troubles.

“In that final round I made good putts in the last few holes to win the title, and the last putt on the 18th hole in the play-off was very memorable.

Hongteak Kim pictured winning the GS Caltex Maekyung Open in May.

“Golf is a game that has good times and bad times, so I try to accept that and play it.”

A stellar field has once again entered the tournament, which is the 66^th staging of the event. Woo Jeong Hills Country Club, an hour outside of Seoul, has been its regular home since 2003 – when John Daly raised the trophy.

American Seungsu Han is back to defend the title he claimed by the commanding margin of six shots last year. Coincidentally, he won the KB Financial Liiv Championship on the Korean PGA Tour the week before Kim’s comeback victory.

Korean Hongtaek Kim, winner of the GS Caltex Maekyung Open in May, for what was the Asian Tour’s first visit of the year to Korea, is also here.

He said: “This week’s tournament is one of the tournaments that I want to win the most, like all Korean players. I’ve played well in the majors in Korea this year; I have not hit a bad shot.”

He beat Thailand’s Thailand’s Chonlatit Chuenboonngam in a sudden-death play-off to win the Maekyung event. A star on the golf simulator circuit on Korea’s GTour – his nickname is King of the Screen thanks to 12 wins – he drained a four-foot par putt on the first extra hole to claim one of Korea’s most coveted titles.

“I still can’t believe I won; I am still so happy and full of confidence,” he added.

Competitors will face conditions that mirror Major championships this week with the rough deep, the greens undulating and treacherous and the weather hot and steamy.

The reward though is also of major significance as the winner will have his name added to the illustrious list of past champions that includes Major winners, Korean Y.E. Yang, Fiji’s Vijay Singh, Sergio Garcia from Spain and Americans Daly and Orville Moody – winner of the first three editions event, starting in 1958.

The Kolon Korea Open presented by ELORD is part of the Open Qualifying Series, meaning the leading two players, not otherwise exempt, will qualifying for this summer’s Open Championship at Royal Troon Golf Club, to be played from July 18-21.

Seungsu Han did not start the 65^th Kolon Korea Open on anyone’s radar but he really should have. Story from the 2023 Asian Tour Yearbook.

He’d won big before, at the Casio World Open in Japan in 2017, and the 2020 LG Signature Players Championship on the Korean PGA Tour.

And although it was some years ago, he had also been a serious player in the amateur game, attending the University of Nevada-Las Vegas and winning the 2006 Porter Cup – a long-standing, prestigious amateur event in the United States won by some of the game’s biggest names, including Phil Mickelson, David Duval and Ben Crenshaw.

So, when he claimed the jewel in the crown of Korean golf after recording an astonishing start-to-finish victory it perhaps should not have been such a surprise.

For the fourth day on the trot, hot and sunny conditions prevailed at Woo Jeong Hills Country Club, but the 36-year-old stayed cool and handled the pressure of front running from the-get-go to close with an even-par 71 for a six-under-par winning total and a commanding six-shot triumph over Korea’s Kyungnam Kang, who also carded a 71.

Last year Seungsu Han became the 12th wire-to-wire winner of the event.

Korean Seungbin Choi claimed third, a shot further back, after shooting a 68 – the best round of the day, and one of only two sub-70 rounds – on the fantastic but formidable Woo Jeong Hills track, just over an hour outside of the capital Seoul.

Han’s magnificent triumph also allowed him to secure one of the two spots on offer for The Open at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in July. Kang, an 11-time winner on the Korean PGA Tour, took the other place.

Any doubts that Han, who started Sunday with a slim one-shot lead over Korean Jaekyeong Lee, would succumb to the pressure were soon put to rest on the front nine when he made the turn with a five-shot lead.

It was just the cushion he was looking for despite an up-and-down front nine, consisting of three birdies and two bogeys. His lead was seven at one point on the back nine with the rest of the field going backwards while he was coasting.

He averted potential disaster on the par-four 15th after a wayward tee-shot left saw his ball finish in a terrible lie – in long, thick grass. Bravely opting not to take a drop he hit an explosive recovery shot back into play, reached the green with his third and to the roar of the crowd holed a 30-footer for an astonishing par save – affirming this was most certainly his week, and the greatest of his career at that point.

Han and Kyungnam Kang both made it through to The Open.

His lead was cut to six on the ensuing hole after a bogey and by the 18th he was five ahead; he put the icing on the cake by holing a six-foot birdie putt on the testing par-five final hole, which was surrounded by huge, patriotic galleries.

“This is such a great honour,” said Han, whose western name is Steve.

“I was really struggling with foot pains and my throat wasn’t good either, so it was tremendously challenging.  I hardly looked at the scores, maybe a few times. I didn’t look at it on purpose. It was about being mentally strong and my putting was great, I holed some long ones.

“I first started playing golf in Korea when I was 13, so the Korea Open means a lot to me. I think it is the best tournament in Korea.”

Born in Incheon, Korea, he moved to the United States when he was 13. He still lives there and first started to play in Asia back in 2010, enjoying most of his success in Japan.

Remarkably he was the only player to finish under par, and for his fine effort he earned a cheque for US$222,222.

He became the 12th wire-to-wire winner of the tournament, and the seventh American to win after Ricky Fowler (2011), Edward Loar (2004), John Daly (2003), Mike Cunning (1994), Scott Hoch (1990 and 1991), and Orville Moody, who won the first three editions of the event starting in 1958.

Han’s six-shot winning margin also matched the record set by Fowler, based on records going back to 1996.

Making it through to The Open marked the second time he had played in a Major. He missed the cut there, unlike at the PGA Championship in 2018.

Seungsu Han.

Defending champion Minkyu Kim of Korea returned a 73 to tie for fourth on two-over-par with countrymen Dongmin Lee, Jaekyeong Lee and Junghwan Lee, and Australian Brendan Jones – winner of the New Zealand Open earlier in the season.

Tournament info

• Tournament: Kolon Korea Open presented by ELORD
• Date: June 20-23, 2024
• Leg: seventh event of 2024 season
• Edition: 66th (Asian Tour 1998-2004, 2006-2008, 2018- 2023, no event due to Covid in 2020)
• Venue: Woo Jeong Hills Country Club, Cheonan, Korea
• Course designer: Perry Dye & Dye Design Inc.
• Year opened: 1993
• Course record: eight-under-par 63. Rickie Fowler (2011), Kyungnam Kang (2006)
• Par/Yards: 71 / 7,326
• Purse: KRW1,400,000,000 (approx. US$1.013 million)
• Field: 144
• Format: 72-hole stroke play
• Cut made after two rounds for the leading 60 players and ties including amateurs
• Social Media Hashtags: #KolonKoreaOpen #whereitsAT

Seungsu Han at the winner’s press conference last year.

Field breakdown

• Order of Merit winners: Sihwan Kim (US) 2022, Jazz Janewattananond (THA) 2019
• Nationalities: 15
• Past winners of the tournament in the field: Jazz Janewattanond (THA), Seungsu Han (USA), Junseok Lee (AUS), Minchel Choi (KOR), Minkyu Kim (KOR), Yikeun Chang (KOR), Seunghyuk Kim (KOR), Sangmoon Bae (KOR)
• Defending champion: Seungsu Han (US). Winning score at same venue was six under. He won by six strokes over Korean Kyungnam Kang in 2023
• Top contenders: Hongtaek Kim (KOR), Richard T. Lee (CAN), Takahiro Hataji (JPN), Younghan Song (KOR), Yubin Jang (KOR)
• Highest ranked player on OWGR: Takahiro Hataji (JPN) #222
• Highest ranked player on 2024 Asian Tour Order of Merit: Hongtaek Kim (KOR) #4
• Amateurs: 8
• Korean players in the field: 96

Two places in The Open are up for grabs this week.

Tournament notes:

• The tournament is part of the Open Qualifying Series (OQS). The leading two players, not already exempt, will gain exemption into the 152nd Open Championship to be held at Royal Troon in July.
• Defending champion Seungsu Han won on the Korean PGA Tour last month at the KB Financial Live Championship. 2022 Korea Open champion Minkyu Kim won the week after at the 14th Descent Korea Match Play.
• With the top three players on the Order of Merit not playing this week joint fourth place players Takahiro Hataji and Hongtaek Kim will have a chance to move up to third in the rankings with a win.
• Hataji captured his first Asian Tour victory at the 103rd New Zealand Open presented by Sky Sport in early March this year, and also won the Kansai Open Golf Championship on the Japan Golf Tour in May for his second professional victory.
• When Hongtaek Kim won the GS Caltex Maekyung Open Golf Championship in a playoff against Thailand’s Chonlatit Chuenboonngam in early May, it was his first Asian Tour victory and second as a pro since he won the 2017 Caido Series Donga Membership Group Dynamic Busan Open.
• Canadian Richard T. Lee is off to a good start to his season and narrowly missed the play-off with Hongtaek Kim and Chonlatit Chuenboonngam at the GS Caltex Maekyung Golf Championship. He has also posted an eighth-place finish at the International Series Macau presented by Wynn, a third place at the SK Telecom Open and a tied seventh at the 67th KPGA Championship With A-One CC, the latter two events part of the Korean PGA Tour.
• Yubin Jang from Korea is the current leader of the Genesis Point Ranking on the Korean PGA Tour with a runner up placing and three other top 10s so far this season, one of those being a tied fourth at the GS Caltex Maekyung Open Golf Championship.
• Korean Changsang Han won this tournament a record seven times, between 1964-1972. The only year he didn’t win in that period was in 1969. Of current players in the field, only Sangmoon Bae has won the tournament more than once, in 2008 and 2009.
• The tournament, inaugurated in 1958, has been played at Woo Jeong Hills since 2003.

Yubin Jang was the leading amateur last year, finishing tied 28th. He starts as one of the favourites this week having turned professional last year. He currently leads the Korean PGA Tour money list.

The Asian Tour will be strongly represented at this summer’s Paris Olympics after the final list of entrants was confirmed from the Olympic Golf Ranking (OGR) yesterday.

The top-60 from the OGR made it through to the men’s event, and it features four past Asian Tour Order of Merit (OOM) champions: Thailand’s Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Gavin Green from Malaysia, India’s Shubhankar Sharma and Tom Kim from Korea.

In addition, Asian Tour tournament winners Carlos Ortiz from Mexico, Spaniard David Puig, India’s Gaganjeet Bhullar, plus Phachara Khongwatmai from Thailand, have also qualified.

Chile’s Joaquin Niemann is one of seven current Asian Tour members who will be in action; the others are Puig, Ortiz, Kiradech, Green, Bhullar, and Phachara.

The men’s event is scheduled to take place at Le Golf National on the outskirts of Paris from August 1-4.

Kiradech Aphibarnrat pictured in Rio in 2016. Picture by Emmanuel Dunand, AFP via Getty Images.

Puig, winner of this year’s Malaysian Open and currently second on the Asian Tour OOM, was one of the last to qualify thanks to playing all four rounds in the US Open last week.

Ortiz’s qualification continues his remarkable season: he currently leads The International Series Rankings, having won the International Series Oman, while he also triumphed at LIV Golf Houston.

Impressively, this will be Green’s third successive Olympics having been at the Rio and Tokyo games, while Kiradech competed in Rio. Both Ortiz and Niemann took part in Tokyo. The others will be making their debuts.

American Scott Scheffler topped the OGR, while Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy was second and Xander Schauffele third. American Schauffele won the Gold Medal at the Tokyo Olympics.

The United States will be represented by the powerful quartet of Scheffler, Schauffele, Wyndham Clark, and Collin Morikawa

McIlroy and Shane Lowry will play for Ireland in Paris.

The final list of entrants for the Olympics men’s golf tournament will be confirmed next week, on Monday, June 17. Ahead of that Asian Tour contributor Joy Chakravarty updates us on who is in the running, and spoke to seven-time Asian Tour winner Anirban Lahiri about his Olympic experiences and on not making it through for his third Olympic appearance.

Anirban Lahiri is one of only nine men’s golfers who can call himself a double Olympian. That run for the Indian ace, Asian Tour Order of Merit champion in 2015, is about to come to an end despite his intense desire to not just add to that tally, but also to his country’s medals tally at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

With no tournament offering Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points until the cut-off date of June 17, Lahiri’s chances are all but over. The only contracted Indian player on LIV Golf, he has no points to show for all his heroics in the League over the past two years – including four runners-up finishes against some of the best players in the world. He has fallen to No519 in the rankings and is behind four Indians – Shubhankar Sharma (218), Gaganjeet Bhullar (254), Veer Ahlawat (412) and Karandeep Kochhar (475) – in the race for a spot in Paris.

“There are a few of us who’ve been fortunate enough to be at both Rio and Tokyo. And once you are part of the Olympics, you always want to be there again and again,” said the 36-year-old.

“Being in Paris was definitely one of my goals at the start of the year and it does become a task when you’re not playing for a lot of our ranking points. I have also been a bit unlucky with my health. I wanted to play the International Series Macau presented by Wynn, but had to pull out as I wasn’t well. I then carried that sickness and had a terrible Hero Indian Open and missed the cut.

Lahiri at the Tokyo Olympics. Picture by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images.

“So, there wasn’t really a lot of opportunities, but still enough for me to kind of make a jump. But I did not play my best golf in the weeks that counted.”

Men’s Olympic golf is limited to a field of 60, with qualifications based on the OWGR. The top-15 players are automatically eligible, but the number is limited to a maximum of four golfers from a single country. Thereafter, the Olympic Golf Rankings (OGR) come into play and a maximum of top two players are eligible per country.

The current OGR (as of June 11) is led by world No1 Scottie Scheffler from the United States. Three other Americans, Xander Schauffele, Wyndham Clark, and Collin Morikawa, are ranked inside the top-15 and currently holding qualification places. Schauffele won the gold medal at Tokyo 2020.

There are a total of 13 Asian players from seven countries – China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Chinese Taipei – that are currently inside the qualification line, including Sharma, Bhullar, Thailand’s Kiradech Aphibarnrat and Phachara Kongwatmai and Malaysian Gavin Green.

The men’s event is scheduled at Le Golf National in the outskirts of Paris from August 1-4.

Apart from the Olympic atmosphere, Lahiri will also miss playing at one of his favourite golf courses – Le Golf National.

“Le Golf National is a golf course that I really liked playing. It’s a ball strikers golf course and I feel I could have challenged for a medal realistically. I think those things matter… the opportunities that you get, if they suit your game style, and you feel comfortable,” said a disappointed Lahiri.

“I played there a couple of times. It’s not a chip-and-putt kind of golf course like Rio was. Tokyo was almost a little too long for me at times. It makes a difference. The Olympics happen once every four years. So, if you feel like the golf course sets up for you, then you feel a little more confident in your ability.”

Lahiri tees-off at the Olympics in Rio. Picture by Emmanuel Dunand AFP via Getty Images.

Olympics and India

Lahiri is also very aware what an Olympic medal would mean to India, the world’s most populous nation. In a recent interview, he equated the impact of a podium finish for the people back home to winning a couple of major golf championships.

“It’s just how people look at the Olympics and how they respond to medals. An Olympic medal is not a joke and it’s understandable how difficult it is for someone who’s in track and field to be an Olympic medalist,” explained Lahiri.

“That is not necessarily the case for us golfers. I think a major victory would probably still trump an Olympic medal personally, just looking at the quality of the field and the history, etc. But the Indian population don’t quite understand the nuances of that. Whereas, everybody understands what an Olympic medal is and how it can change the attitude of the government, the people.

“That was one of the main reasons why it was very important for me personally. I wanted to see that change, and be a part of that change.

“We saw quite a massive impact in the whole shooting infrastructure after (Abhinav) Bindra, and before that (Rajyavardhan Singh) Rathore won their medals. Or, what our badminton stars like Pullela Gopichand and PV Sindhu have done. If you look at winning the All England versus an Olympic medal, they will tell you a similar thing to what I’m saying.”

Easy motivation

Swimming legend Michael Phelps is Lahiri’s all-time favourite Olympian, but having experienced being a part of everyone aspiring to climb the Mount Everest of their sport in the last two Games, he has a huge amount of respect for every participant of them who goes through the grind.

“You see all the elite sportspersons in the world, and you just try to soak in the environment. The energy is palpable. Everyone is so focused, almost laser-like. For a lot of these athletes, it’s a culmination of four years of hard work, perseverance, planning and preparation. I greatly appreciate and respect what each one of them must go through.

“Phelps will always be at the top of everyone’s list, just what he’s done, the sheer numbers, the time duration over which he dominated his sport. It’s mind-boggling actually.

“But there is a lot of motivation and inspiration just observing other athletes. You don’t need to meet a Phelps or (Usain) Bolt, to get inspired. You see unknown names, thousands of them, preparing with a similar intensity. Every single one of them has a story that people don’t know, or don’t understand.

“Just meeting these athletes, and hearing the stories that got them there, what they had to overcome on the way, how they did it despite the systems… I used to think I’ve come from nothing, and that’s true in a lot of ways, but I was very fortunate to have been exposed to the game being an army brat. After listening to the stories of some of these athletes, I feel that I’m very fortunate compared to them. It’s very easy to get motivated at the Olympics.”

Lahiri has been plying his trade with great success on LIV Golf. Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images).

Lahiri does not have any outstanding personal memories of his own participation, but he was full of praise for Aditi Ashok, who led the field on Friday in Rio and heartbreakingly finished one shot outside the medals in Tokyo.

“For me, personally, my golf was substandard. I was injured during Rio and I didn’t play my best in Tokyo. To be quite honest, it was at the end of a five, six-week grind and I ran out of gas. So, there’s not that much that I’ve remembered of my golf,” said Lahiri, who finished 57th in Rio and improved to tied 42nd in Tokyo.

“But from golf’s perspective, seeing how people rallied behind Aditi, and what she did that week, it was a sneak peek into what an Olympic medal can do for Indian golf. She was amazing and got really close in Tokyo. I hope she gets it done this year, because I know she’s a lock for Paris.”