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<\/p>\nWith the penultimate stretch of the season now concluded, I am pleased to see many strong performances from our members over a two-month stretch where the Asian Tour was in full swing in seven out of the eight weeks.<\/p>\n
We also sanctioned five Asian Development Tour (ADT) events over a similar period which has been highlighted by several notable performances from the likes of Joohyung Kim (Tommy) and Naoki Sekito who will undoubtably be playing on the Asian Tour regularly in the near future.<\/p>\n
Starting in August, the Asian Tour began the second half schedule with our stop in East Malaysia where the second edition of the\u00a0Sarawak Championship\u00a0<\/strong>saw our top-two players on the Habitat for Humanity Standings\u00a0Jazz Janewattananond\u00a0and\u00a0Scott Hend\u00a0join a strong field.<\/p>\n The tournament concluded in dramatic fashion with\u00a0Andrew Dodt\u00a0emerging victorious in a play-off over Richard T. Lee, who made a spectacular eagle on the 72nd hole courtesy of a three-wood second shot which is arguably the shot of the year so far.<\/p>\n The Sarawak Economic Development Corp was the major sponsor of the event and was very pleased with the media attention the event received.<\/p>\n Andrew Dodt – winner of the 2019 Sarawak Championship<\/p>\n<\/div>\n We then headed to the Pondok Indah Golf Course in Jakarta where the Indonesia Golf Association graciously hosts the\u00a0Bank BRI Indonesia Open\u00a0every year.<\/p>\n Needless to say, the location in the heart of the city is always one of our most popular Tour stops. The weekend would see a home-grown product of the Indonesia Golf Association \u2013\u00a0Naraajie E. Ramadhanputra<\/em>\u00a0set the pace and take a commanding six-shot lead into the final round but Argentinian\u00a0Miguel Carballo\u00a0would outlast the youngster down the stretch.<\/p>\n Miguel produced an outstanding display of consistency and made only one bogey the entire tournament on his way to lifting the trophy. Understandably, the Indonesian crowd was left disappointed but yet optimistic about the future of Indonesian golf.<\/p>\n Miguel Carballo of Argentina – winner of the 2019 Bank BRI Indonesia Open<\/p>\n<\/div>\n We would then jump to Chinese Taipei for the 10th edition of the\u00a0Yeangder TPC\u00a0which saw one of our in-form members\u00a0Yikeun Chang\u00a0come out on top following a dominant display where he fended off the ever-present challengers from Chinese Taipei. Yikeun\u2019s victory in Taipei was a validation of his outstanding season, where he had finished runner-up in Indonesia the week before his breakthrough.<\/p>\n On the tournament development side, we were delighted to see the Classic Golf & Country Club host their first Asian Tour event in a decade. 10 years on from our last visit, the course has matured well and was presented in outstanding condition together with a new clubhouse and facilities.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Classic Golf & Country Club International Championship\u00a0was a joint initiative between the host venue and the Asian Tour which brought a new event onto the schedule and crowned the first ever Indonesian winner on Tour \u2013\u00a0Rory Hie. We look forward to returning to the same venue in November for the Panasonic Open India.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Shinhan Donghae Open\u00a0broke new ground by becoming the first ever tri-sanctioned event in Korea with the inclusion of the Japan Golf Tour Organisation (JGTO) this year. The logic behind this exercise was for Shinhan Financial Group to do their part by helping to ease the recently reported trade tension between Korea and Japan and using sports as a medium.<\/p>\n This was a landmark event for all the stakeholders involved and it was deemed a great success. On the golfing side, South Africa\u2019s\u00a0Jbe Kruger\u00a0produced a masterclass in tough Sunday conditions to pip Chan Kim and Scott Vincent who have been racking up top-three finishes at the Bear\u2019s Best Golf Course.<\/p>\n Rory Hie of Indonesia – winner of the 2019 Classic Golf & Country Club\u00a0International Championship<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The magnificently manicured Higashi Hirono Golf Club in Kobe would see out the\u00a02018-19 Panasonic Swing\u00a0which was made up of five events in Asia, including the 2018 Thailand Open, 2018 Panasonic Open India, 2018 BNI Indonesian Masters and the 2019 Maybank Championship, before culminating at the\u00a0Panasonic Open Golf Championship\u00a0in its new September date.<\/p>\n The sponsors could not have asked for more befitting finale with\u00a0Jazz Janewattananond\u00a0needing to birdie one of his last two holes to finish in top spot ahead of Poom Saksansin and Panuphol Pittayarat. Toshinori Muto\u00a0collected a very deserved first Asian Tour title, shooting back to back 64s on the weekend. We are also currently in discussions with our Japan Tour counterparts to collaborate on several new co-sanctioned events in the future.<\/p>\n The week of the 33rd\u00a0Mercuries Taiwan Masters<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>got off to a slightly rocky start with Monday being abandoned due to an impending typhoon. Luckily there was little impact and the tournament resumed as normal with the pro-am and tournament proper enjoying ideal weather conditions.<\/p>\n Defending champion Adilson Da Silva put up a valiant title defence along with Miguel Tabuena and Ajeetesh Sandhu who would come up just one shot shy of eventual winner\u00a0Suradit Yongcharoenchai<\/strong>. Suradit now joins the list of maiden winners this season which also include Zach Murray, Sadom Kaewkanjana, Miguel Carballo, Rory Hie, Taehee Lee, Yosuke Asaji and Toshinori Muto.<\/p>\n Suradit Yongcharoenchai of Thailand – winner of the 2019 Mercuries Taiwan Masters<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In other noteworthy achievements, we have reached the end of our qualifying period for the\u00a0WGC-HSBC Champions\u00a0which sees the top four players from a cumulative 12-month money list, from November 2018 to present, automatically qualify. They are namely Jazz Janewattananond, Scott Hend, Jbe Kruger and Masahiro Kawamura.<\/p>\n The\u00a0CJ Cup @Nine Bridges\u00a0in Korea next week also gives exemptions for our Merit leader Jazz and the leading Korean on our Habitat for Humanity Standings – Taehee Lee. We wish all our members the best of luck in the three lucrative PGA TOUR and WGC events in October. They are a great opportunity to earn substantial OWGR points and FedEx Cup points not to mention the high prize purses!<\/p>\n Thai Country Club – Host venue of the 2019 Thailand Open<\/strong><\/p>\n We now take a well- deserved break before resuming with the\u00a0Thailand Open\u00a0in early November where the Tour will be in full flow until right before Christmas.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n Check out the latest from the Asian tour as they head into the end of the season!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cloudcdn.nz\/_nzopen_\/cms\/..\/assets\/uploads\/1.jpg\")
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\nWGC-HSBC Champions & CJ CUP<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Tour Schedule<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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