Tournament Information

• Tournament: The 44th GS Caltex Maekyung Open Golf Championship
• Date: May 1^st – 4^th, 2025
• Venue: Namseoul Country Club, Seoul Korea
• Par/Yards: 71 / 7,083 yards
• Purse: KRW 1,300,000,000 (approximately US$909,120)
• Defending Champion: Hongtaek Kim (KOR)
• Asian Tour leg: Fifth
• Edition of tournament: 44th
• Total number of players: 144
• Format: Stroke play tournament over 4 rounds of 18 holes with a cut after 36 holes to leading 65 players (including amateurs) plus ties.
• Social media hashtags: #TimeToRise #MaekyungOpen

Ryan Peake pictured winning the New Zealand Open presented by Sky Sport earlier this year. Picture by Photosport.

Field Breakdown

• Order of Merit winners: Sihwan Kim (2022), Jazz Janewattananond (2019), Scott Hend (2016)
• Nationalities: 19
• Top contenders: Richard T. Lee (CAN), Travis Smyth (AUS), Junghwan Lee (KOR), Ian Snyman (RSA), Julien Sale (FRA), Ryan Peake (AUS)
• Highest ranked player on OWGR: Richard T. Lee (CAN) #175
• Highest ranked player on 2025 Asian Tour Order of Merit: Ryan Peake (AUS) #3
• Number of amateurs: 8
• Number of Korean players in the field: 90

Richard T. Lee. Picture by Paul Lakatos/Asian Tour.

Tournament Notes

• Richard T. Lee of Canada could be considered the favourite this week after winning the Woori Bank Finance Championship on the Korean PGA Tour this past weekend in a three-way playoff, and reaching a career high of 175^th on the OWGR after that win. The 34-year-old Canadian of Korean descent finished solo third in this tournament last year, after narrowly missing his birdie attempt on the 72^nd hole which would have gotten him into a play-off with eventual winner Hongtaek Kim from Korea and Chonlatit Chuenboonngam of Thailand. Lee had a great season on the Asian Tour last year, finishing third on the Order of Merit thanks to a win at the BNI Indonesian Masters, a runner up at the International Series Thailand and four other top 10s. He is off to a good start this season with top-10s in both Asian Tour events he has played, finishing fifth in the International Series Macau presented by Wynn and T10 in the International Series India presented by DLF. Lee has also continued his impressive current cut streak on the Asian Tour and has now made 19 consecutive cuts, the last time he missed being around on the weekend was at the International Series Singapore in October of 2023.
• Australian Travis Smyth has been in good form this season posting T10s in the International Series Macau presented by Wynn and the International Series India presented by DLF, a T15 in the New Zealand Open presented by Sky Sport and a T16 in the Smart Infinity Philippine Open. He also finished T3 in the Webex Players Series Sydney hosted by Peter O’Malley on the PGA Tour of Australasia. In four previous appearances at Namseoul he is yet to make the cut and will be looking to make amends this week.
• Junghwan Lee of Korea has finished T4 and T2 in the last two editions of the tournament. Playing sparingly on the Asian Tour in 2024 he finished 45^th on the Order of Merit and his best result this season has been a T13 at the Smart Infinity Philippine Open.
• South Africa’s Ian Snyman has had a mixed bag of results this season finishing T2 in the New Zealand Open presented by Sky Sport and in the T5 Smart Infinity Philippine Open, while missing the cuts in Macau and India.
• Rookie Frenchman Julien Sale won the season opening Smart Infinity Philippine Open in his first start on the Asian Tour, becoming the first ever player to win in his Asian Tour debut a month after earning his card at Q-School in Thailand a month earlier. He also finished T16 in the International Series India Presented by DLF and sits in fifth place on the Order of Merit.
• Australian Ryan Peake will be making his debut at the GS Caltex Maekyung Open after winning the New Zealand Open presented by Sky Sport in early March, also earning a ticket to the Open Championship in the process. It will also mark Peake’s first start as an Asian Tour member having played in New Zealand through his status on the Australian Tour. At number three on the Order of Merit he is the highest ranked player in the field.
• Defending champion Hongtaek Kim of Korea will be hoping that his good memories from Namseoul Country Club last year will see him return to form, as his two previous Asian Tour starts in 2025 has resulted in missed cuts.
• There are three two-time winners of the GS Caltex Maekyung Open in the field this week: Bio Kim (2012, 2022), Taehee Lee (2019, 2020) and Sanghyun Park (2016, 2018).
• In addition to Bio Kim’s two wins at Namseoul he also holds a very impressive overall record at Namseoul, with a tied sixth in 2023 and five other top-five finishes in the previous 16 times he’s played in the GS Caltex Maekyung Open.
• The last non-Korean to win the GS Caltex Maekyung Open was American Mark Calcaveccia in 2004 when the event was played at Lakeside, while the last foreign winner at Namseoul Country Club was Eddie Lee from New Zealand who won the event as an amateur in 2002.