Royale Jakarta Golf Club hosted the BNI Indonesian Masters for the 12^th time last week, and after playing it as a par-71 12 months ago, hole number nine was back as a par-five last week – meaning the impressive South Jakarta course was once again a par-72.

Despite this, Richard T. Lee’s winning total of 23-under fell one short of Gaganjeet Bhullar’s total from a year earlier, although birdies and eagles were once again made with apparent ease.

There were 1,617 birdies and 32 eagles recorded, and it was wire-to-wire winner Lee who topped the total birdies and eagles categories for the week with 26 and two respectively. Remarkably, he’d also won the birdie count at the previous week’s International Series Thailand, where he tied for second, with 27.

The win on Sunday was the Canadian’s fourth top-10 in a row on the Asian Tour, and during that span he was a combined 73-under-par having made 97 birdies, or 6.06 per round, with a scoring average of 66.94.

Chang wei-lun. Picture by Paul Lakatos/Asian Tour.

At Royale Jakarta Lee was in total command on the greens, ranking a clear first in Putts per Greens in Regulation (GIR) with 1.518 and fourth in Putts per Round with 26.5. That putting performance combined with finishing T8 in GIR, on 77.78%, proved deadly, helping to ensure he was never close to being caught on Sunday afternoon. His other major stats for the week were Driving Distance (290.75, T36) and Fairways Hit (62.5%, T42).

For the season so far, Lee has been impressive in several statistics categories: he ranks fourth in Scoring Average with 68.39, second in GIR with 76.77%, third in Birdies per Round with 5.14 and 14^th in Putts per GIR with 1.714.

For Chinese Taipei’s Chang Wei-lun it was a crucial week as his T2 meant he secured his card for 2025 after posting his first top-10 of the season. Chang had a very good week on the greens, ranking seventh in Putts per GIR with 1.632 and T10 in Putts per Round with 27.5. He also impressed with his tee to green game, ranking T4 in GIR with 79.17% and T2 in Fairways Hit on 83.93%.

Chang only dropped shots on two of the 72 holes, a double bogey in round one and a bogey in round three, and was tied for first in Fewest Bogeys or Worse for the week.

Phachara Khongwatmai. Picture by Paul Lakatos/Asian Tour.

Phachara Khongwatmai of Thailand also posted his best result of the year after an uncharacteristic season with only one previous top-10. Like tournament winner Lee and co runner-up Chang, Phachara was also in good form on the greens and ranked sixth and T8 in Putts per GIR and Putts per Round, with 1.618 and 27.25 respectively. He also posted one of the two Holes-in-One during the week, acing the par three 11^th hole in the third round, moments after American Bubba Watson had aces the same hole with an almost identical shot.

American John Catlin, who continues to lead both the Asian Tour Order of Merit and The International Series Rankings, posted a T6 for his eighth top-10 finish in 11 Asian Tour events this season. However, he saw his lead shrink in the ranking races, with Lee now his closest pursuer, jumping from seventh to second on both sets of tables. Catlin leads the Asian Tour Merit list with 3,030.06 points to Lee’s 1,775.29 and The International Series Ranking with 900.58 vs. 660.64 points for Lee.

Statistics Categories leaders at the BNI Indonesian Masters (of players making the cut):

• Putts per Round: Prom Meesawat (THA) – 26
• Putts per GIR: Richard T. Lee (CAN) – 1.518
• GIR: Austen Truslow (USA) – 87.5%
• Fairways Hit: Ben Campbell (NZL) – 92.86%
• Driving Distance: Douglas Klein (AUS) 320.38 – Yards
• Most Eagles: Richard T. Lee – 2
• Most Birdies: Richard T. Lee – 26
• Fewest Bogies or Worse: Jazz Janewattananond (THA), Chang Wei-lun (TPE) – 2
• Scrambling: Maverick Antcliff (AUS) – 90.48%