Asian Tour Yearbook: 2023

A S I AN TOUR 202 3 : A CANDI DATE FOR THE GR E ATE ST SE A SON EV ER Kho’s win at the World City Championship at Hong Kong Golf Club, at the age of 22, was simply a ‘Cinderella moment’, as the venerable old venue is his home club and he had only just been confirmed as their ambassador. And winning in front of family, friends and the large, loyal, local support made it a Hong Kong golfer to claim the individual gold medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games – finished the year ninth on the merit list, with the next best placed rookie being Denwit Booribonsub, in 21st place, another phenomenal young player who sensationally burst onto the scene. Denwit’s English name is David, but he enjoyed a Goliath of a season, when at the age of 19 he won in three successive weeks in December. Nobody saw it coming because at the start of the month he was languishing in 133rd place on the Asian Tour merit list and he was 30th on Asian Development Tour (ADT) rankings. However, a star was born in that final month of the year when he recorded a brilliant three-shot win in the Saudi Open presented by Public Investment Fund, the final event of 2023, a week after winning the Thailand Open on the All Thailand Golf Tour, which followed his victory in the Aramco Invitational on the ADT the week before that. It meant he had the distinction of becoming the first player to win the final events of the year on both the Asian Tour and ADT, as the Aramco event was also the season- ender. Those successes emphatically secured his playing privileges on the 2024 Asian Tour. Indeed, week in, week out, amazing stories unfolded on the Asian Tour. Mexican Abraham Ancer got the year off to an incredible start when he won the PIF Saudi International powered by Softbank Investment Advisers, outplaying a field featuring eight of the top-50 in the Official World Golf Ranking and 11 Major champions, including Bryson DeChambeau, Sergio Garcia, Brooks Koepka, Graeme McDowell, Phil Mickelson, Louis Oosthuizen, Patrick Reed, Charl Schwartzel, Cameron Smith, Henrik Stenson and Bubba Watson. At the St Andrews Bay Championship Spain’s Eugenio Chacarra Lopez and Australian veteran Matt Jones were involved in a record-breaking sudden- death play-off over 10 holes. Chacarra eventually prevailed just as the sun was setting, having the final say in the longest play-off in the Tour’s history which lasted a nerve-racking two hours and eight minutes and comfortably beat the previous record of seven extra holes at the 2001 SK Telecom Open in Korea involving Charlie Wi, Kang Wook-soon and Simon Yates. There were also 15 other winners across the year, each with their magnificent tales to tell. All will also no doubt feel the year was a worthy candidate for the greatest season ever. win of huge significance. The atmosphere on that Sunday will certainly be hard to duplicate, although victory by Kho in the Hong Kong Open, a definite possibility, would certainly outshine it. Kho – who also made history again later in the year when he became the first Gaganjeet Bhullar was once again unstoppable in Indonesia [LEFT]. 12