Tournament Information

• Tournament: Kolon Korea Open presented by ELORD
• Date: May 22-25, 2025
• Venue: La Vie Est Belle (Dunes Course), Chuncheon, Korea
• Par/Yards: 71 / 7,423 yards
• Purse: KRW1,400,000,000 (approximately US$1,008,000)
• Defending champion: Minkyu Kim (KOR)
• Asian Tour leg: Seventh
• Edition of tournament: 67^th
• Total number of players: 144
• Format: Stroke play tournament over 4 rounds of 18 holes with a cut after 36 holes for leading 60 players (including amateurs) plus ties.
• Open Qualifying Series (OQS) event – The leading player not already exempt, who makes the cut at the Kolon Korea Open will earn a place in The 153rd Open at Royal Portrush from 13-20 July 2025
• Social media hashtags: #TimeToRise

This week’s event is part of the Open Qualifying Series. Koreans Minkyu Kim and Younghan Song made it through last year.

Field Breakdown

• Order of Merit winners: Sihwan Kim (2022), Jazz Janewattananond (2019), Jeev Milkha Singh (2006, 2008)
• Nationalities: 15
• Top contenders: Richard T. Lee (CAN), Doyeob Mun (KOR), Jazz Janewattananond (THA), Minkyu Kim (KOR), Danny Lee (NZL), Travis Smyth (AUS), Scott Vincent (ZIM)
• Highest ranked player on OWGR: Richard T. Lee (CAN) #164
• Highest ranked player on 2025 Asian Tour Order of Merit: Doyeob Mun (KOR) #4
• Number of amateurs: 6
• Number of Korean players in the field: 96

Tournament Notes

• Richard T. Lee of Canada finished second at last week’s SK Telecom Open on the Korean PGA Tour last week after coming up short in a play-off against Korea’s Jaewoong Eom, but as consolation he reached a career high ranking on the OWGR sitting in 164^th position this week. He also won the Woori Bank Finance Championship on the same tour in late April after a three-way play-off. 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 also had a good start this season with top-10s in his first two Asian Tour starts, finishing fifth in the International Series Macau presented by Wynn and T10 in the International Series India presented by DLF. Lee continued his impressive cut streak on the Asian Tour to 21 two events at the International Series Japan presented by Moutai, and the last time he missed a cut on the Asian Tour was at the International Series Singapore in October of 2023.

Doyeob Mun won when the Asian Tour last visited Korea – three weeks ago.

• GS Caltex Maekyung Open winner Doyeob Mun from Korea has been great form recently, shown by his spectacular final round 63 at the difficult Namseoul Country Club track. At his latest Asian Tour tournament, the International Series Japan presented by Moutai, he finished tied 37^th. In addition to his win at the GS Caltex Maekyung Open, Mun has three Korean PGA Tour titles on his CV.
• The 2019 Korea Open winner Jazz Janewattananond from Thailand, a seven-time winner on the Asian Tour, has seen his game return to good form and he finished T2 at the recent GS Caltex Maekyung Open after being the joint leader after three rounds. He also recorded a top 10 at the International Series Macau presented by Wynn six weeks earlier. The now 29-year-old won this tournament in 2019, the season in which he won four titles and the Asian Tour Order of Merit crown, beating Korean Innchoon Hwang by one shot at Woo Jeong Hills.

Jazz Janewattananond claimed Korea’s National Open in 2019.

• The defending champion Minkyu Kim of Korea, who also won this tournament in 2022, has mainly been playing on the DP World Tour this season, with T8 at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters in February as his best result. Kim finished second in the Korean PGA Tour’s Genesis Points rankings in 2024 after two victories, thereby earning his ticket onto the DP World Tour. He made his debut on the LIV Golf League recently at their inaugural Korean event.
• Korean born New Zealander Danny Lee who plays on Kevin Na’s Iron Heads team on the LIV Golf League, has one LIV title on his resume after winning the Tucson event in 2023. He also famously won the 2009 Johnnie Walker Classic on the DP World Tour while still an amateur, a year after winning the 2008 U.S. Amateur Championship at Pinehurst. He was the number one ranked amateur in the world from August 2008 until turning pro in April 2009. This season on the LIV Golf League Lee has a T9 at LIV Miami as his best result.
• Scott Vincent from Zimbabwe has had a bit of a mixed bag of results on the Asian Tour this season, with top 10s in the Smart Infinity Philippine Open and International Series India Presented by DLF, a T12 in the GS Caltex Maekyung Open, after being in fifth place after three rounds, but also two missed cuts in Japan and Macau. In his lone start on the Japan Golf Tour in 2025 he posted a T9 at the Maezawa Cup in late April. Vincent has one Asian Tour victory on his resume, the 2022 International Series England, along with three on the Japan Golf Tour coming in 2021 and 2022. He’s coming into this week on a high because at the weekend he successfully secured one of the three places up for grabs at a US Open qualifying event, played in Japan.
• Australian Travis Smyth is one of Asian Tour’s most prolific high performers, and could be looked upon as being overdue for his second Asian Tour title after winning the 2022 Yeangder TPC. He 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. Smyth was T5 and only three shots out of the lead going into Sunday at the International Series Japan presented by Moutai, before a final round of 75 derailed his chances. His worst finish in six Asian Tour events of 2025 has been a T24, and he also finished T3 in the Webex Players Series Sydney hosted by Peter O’Malley on the Australian Tour in late February.
• Former Presidents Cup (2015) player Sangmoon Bae is the only player in the field other than the defending champion Kim that has won his national Open twice, in 2008 and 2009. The Korean holds an impressive resume with two PGA Tour titles, three on the Japan Golf Tour, nine on the Korean Tour and three on the Asian Tour.