Overview

Few tournaments on the Asian Tour are as big and important as the KOLON Korea Open.

This year marks the 68th staging of Korea’s national open, which returns to Woo Jeong Hills Country Club.

The prestigious event has been played at the Club since 2003, with the exception of last year when renovations were taking place.

Once again, the winner will earn a place in The Open – to be played at Royal Birkdale in July this year – as the event is part of the Open Qualifying Series.

The tournament is owned by the Korea Golf Association, with whom the Asian Tour has enjoyed a flourishing and long-standing relationship.

This week marks the seventh stop of the season on the Asian Tour.

Tournament Information

• Tournament: KOLON Korea Open
• Date: 21 – 24 May
• Venue: Woo Jeong Hills Country Club, Cheonan, Korea
• Par / Yards: 71 / 7,326 yards
• Purse: KRW2,000,000,000
• Asian Tour leg: Seventh
• Edition of tournament: 68th
• Previous winner: Sadom Kaewkanjana (THA)
• Total number of players: 144
• Format: Stroke play tournament over 4 rounds of 18 holes with a cut after 36 holes to leading 60 players (including amateurs) plus ties.

Minhyuk Song celebrates after winning the GS Caltex Maekyung Open three weeks ago. Picture courtesy of Korea Golf Association.

Field Breakdown

• Order of Merit winners: John Catlin (2024), Andy Ogletree (2023), Sihwan Kim (2023), Jazz Janewattananond (2019)
• Nationalities: 18
• Top contenders: Jeongwoo Ham (KOR), Cameron John (AUS), Ian Snyman (RSA), Pavit Tangkamolprasert (THA), Minkyu Kim [main picture] (KOR), Minhyuk Song (KOR), Seonghyeon Kim (KOR), Jazz Janewattananond (THA), Bubba Watson (USA), Abraham Ancer (MEX), Richard T. Lee (CAN)
• Highest ranked player on OWGR: Seonghyeon Kim (KOR) #146
• Highest ranked player on the Order of Merit: Jeongwoo Ham (KOR) #2
• No. of amateurs in the field: 7
• No. of Korean players in the field: 91

Tournament Notes

• As an extra incentive this year, an additional bonus of KRW200,000,000 (approximately US$133,481) will be awarded to the winner.
• South African Ian Snyman is perhaps the hottest player in the field this week following his first Asian Tour win at the Taiwan Glass Taifong Open two weeks ago. The week before that he finished T3 at the notoriously difficult Namseoul Country Club at the GS Caltex Maekyung Open. He also started off the year well with a T5 at the season opening Philippine Golf Championship. Currently third on the Order of Merit.
• Jeongwoo Ham from Korea is also in good form, winning the Singapore Open presented by The Business Times wire-to-wire last month. With the win in Singapore, he also punched his ticket to The Open via the Open Qualifying Series (OQS). Prior to his victory in Singapore he had also recorded four wins on his home tour in Korea, the last one coming in 2024.
• Fellow Korean Minkyu Kim won the Korea Open twice at the demanding Woo Jeong Hills course, in 2022 and 2024 and he recently finished T6 at the GS Caltex Maekyung Open for his best result this year. This season he has mainly been playing on the LIV Golf League as part of the Korean GC team, with a T22 in LIV Mexico City as his best finish there.

Ian Snyman after winning the Taiwan Glass Taifong Open two weeks ago. Pictures courtesy Taiwan PGA.

• Thailand’s Pavit Tangkamolprasert, currently in fourth place on the Order of Merit, started 2026 with excellent results after a runner-up at the season opening Philippine Golf Championship and a T2 in the International Series Japan. He also had an early season T2 on the All Thailand Tour after a play-off loss to compatriot Danthai Boonma. Slightly off his early season form in his last three tournaments while still making the cuts, he will be looking to rebound this week.
• Australian Cameron John has been playing great golf this year, with a runner-up at the Singapore Open and a T7 at International Series Japan. The result in Singapore also meant that he earned a place at The Open at Royal Birkdale this summer via the OQS. He also won two tournaments on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia earlier in 2026 to finish second to compatriot Travis Smyth on their 2025/26 Order of Merit.
• Thailand’s Jazz Janewattananond won this tournament and this venue in 2019, the same year he would go on to win the Order of Merit title after four victories. This season his best posting has been a T3 at the Singapore Open last month, as well as a runner-up on the Asian Development Tour in late March. He is currently tied for ninth in all-time Asian Tour wins with seven, the last one coming at the 2022 International Series Morocco.
• Seonghyeon Kim from Korea has a card on the PGA Tour after graduating from the Korn Ferry Tour last year. However, as he’s preparing to possibly enter his national service later this year, he has played on the Korean PGA Tour since mid April with a T6 af the co-sanctioned GS Caltex Maekyung Open as his best finish. On the PGA Tour he has posted a T7 at the Valspar Championship as his best result in 2026, followed by a T13 at the season opening Sony Open in Hawaii. He played in three Asian Tour events in 2025 with a sixth place in the Shinhan Donghae Open as his best finish.
• Minhyuk Song from the host country won the recent GS Caltex Maykyung Open, one of the major championships in Korea, in a play-off with compatriot Mingyu Cho in dramatic fashion a few weeks ago. The 22-year-old could be considered one of the top young Korean prospects after finishing T2 in the same event in 2023 and posting numerous other top 10’s in Korean events since then. Now an Asian Tour winner and member. His Korea Open record leaves a lot of room for improvement, as he has missed the cut in every edition since first playing in 2021.
• American Bubba Watson, a two-time Masters champion in 2012 and 2014, is currently playing on the LIV Golf League as captain of the Range Goats GC. This year has not been what he has hoped for, but he had a runner-up and three other top-10s in 2025.

Abraham Ancer claimed the PIF Saudi International in 2023. Picture by Paul Lakatos/Asian Tour.

• Fellow LIV player Abraham Ancer from Mexico, playing for Torque GC, is having a better season with a T3 in South Africa and a T4 in Riyadh. He has one LIV win on his resume, the 2024 Hong Kong event. He has one victory on the Asian Tour, the 2023 PIF Saudi International, and he also won the 2021 WGC FedEx St. Jude Invitational on the PGA Tour.
• Three-time Asian Tour champion Richard T. Lee from Canada qualified for LIV by winning the Promotions event in early January, and came very close to victory in LIV Singapore after losing to Bryson DeChambeau in a playoff. He has also posted three other top-20’s in his LIV season so far, as well as a T4 in the Woori Financial Group Championship on the KPGA Tour late last month.
• Past champions in the field this week: Minkyu Kim (2022 and 2024), Jazz Janewattananond (2019), Seungsu Han (2023), Junseok Lee (2021), Minchel Choi (2018), Yikeun Chang (2017), Sangmoon Bae (2008 and 2009).
• Korean Simon Seungmin Lee, ranked number two in the World Ranking for Golfers with Disability (WR4GD), just won the G4D Open at Celtic Manor in Wales, UK, last week. Lee, who is autistic, has previously won the US Adaptive Open in 2022, the 2025 ISPS HANDA Australian All Abilities Championship and the Glico Paragolf Championship in Japan three times. He regularly competes on the Korean PGA and China Tours.
• The tournament is part of the Open Qualifying Series (OQS) – The leading player, not already exempt as of close of entries who makes the cut will earn a place in The 154th Open at Royal Birkdale from 16 -19 July 2026.
• The event was staged at La Vie Est Belle (Dunes Course) last year – the only time it has not been played at Woo Jeong Hills in the last 22 years.
• The winningest player in tournament history is Korea’s Changsang Han who won the title seven times in an eight-year span. This included four years in a row 1964-1967 and three straight years 1970-1972.