The Kolon Korea Open produced a thrilling final round on the Dune Course at La Vie Est Belle – a layout that was used for the first time in the championship. It was a very challenging track for most players as the average score for the week was 73.873 on the par 71 layout, nearly three shots over par. Even the par fives averaged over par.

The narrow fairways proved particularly difficult to hit, and only two players, Swede Bjorn Hellgren and Jed Morgan from Australia, reached the 50% Fairways Hit mark.

Thailand’s Sadom Kaewkanjana [main picture] came out on top at the end of a tightly fought contest with compatriot and close-friend Poom Saksansin, and both players produced an amazing display on and around the difficult greens.

Sadom excelled on the greens to win his third Asian Tour title, ranking second in Putts Per Greens in Regulation (GIR) with 1.755 and T2 in Putts per Round with 28.25. The rest of his short game was also outstanding, especially on Sunday when he shot a one-under-par 70 while only hitting seven greens in regulation. He got up and down eight out of 11 times.

Poom Saksansin. 

His Scrambling percentage for the week was 73.91%, ranking sixth in this category. Thanks to this he was able to keep bogeys to a minimum and tie for first in the Fewest Bogeys or Worse category with eight, together with Zimbabwe’s Scott Vincent and Songgyu Yoo from Korea.

Sadom’s driving and iron play was also in good form, placing T6 in the GIR category with 68.06% and fifth in Fairways Hit with 44.64% while averaging 278.75 yards off the tee.

Runner-up Poom’s putting was exquisite for the first three days, and after 54 holes he was T1 on Putts per Round and second in Putts per GIR. After a two-over-par 73 on Sunday his stats on the greens fell away slightly, dropping to fifth in Putts per GIR with 1.784 and T8 in Putts per Round with 29. Thanks to his fine putting Poom made 16 birdies for the week, only one behind category leader Dongmin Kim of Korea but one more than the winner.

Just like Sadom, Poom also performed very nicely with his approach game and driving, ranking third in GIR with 70.83% and T3 in Fairways Hit with 48.21%. His GIR stat is particularly impressive considering he was the shortest player off the tee of the players making the cut, averaging only 256.17 yards compared to Sadom’s 278.75. Category leader David Boriboonsub, also from Thailand, averaged 312.5.

Hong Kong’s Taichi Kho produced a stunning bogey free final round of 64, the lowest round of the week, to catapult himself from T38 to T4 on the final leaderboard – his third best finish on the Asian Tour.

Statistics Categories leaders at the Kolon Korea Open (of players making the cut):

• Putts per Round – Bio Kim (KOR): 27.5
• Putts per GIR – Doyeob Mun (KOR): 1.727
• GIR – Kevin Yuan (AUS): 75%
• Fairways Hitm – Jed Morgan (AUS), Bjorn Hellgren (SWE): 50%
• Driving Distance – David Boriboonsub (THA): 312.5 yards
• Most Eagles – Doyeob Mun (KOR), Sangyeop Lee (KOR), Teayang Jung (KOR), Jaewon Lee (KOR), Baekjun Kim (KOR): 1
• Most Birdies –  Dongmin Kim (KOR): 17
• Fewest Bogies or Worse – Songgyu Yoo (KOR), Sadom Kaewkanjana (THA), Scott Vincent (ZIM): 8
• Scrambling – Scott Vincent (ZIM): 78.95%
• Bounce back – Sadom Kaewkanjana (THA): 50%

Pictures courtesy of the Korea Golf Association.