Asian Tour Yearbook: 2023

SAUDI OPEN PR E SEN T ED BY PUBL I C I N V E STMEN T FUND R I YA D H GO L F C L U B | D E C EM B E R 1 4 - 1 7 | P R I Z E MON E Y U S $ 1 M I L L I ON again from 11 were the mark of a player on top of his game. He made eight birdies in total and dropped just one shot. At the turn he had a two-shot lead, which was the gap he had playing the last, where he put the cherry on top with a birdie. He also made par saving clutch putts from eight feet on 15 and 17 to fend off his pursuers. “It is an unbelievable feeling because it is incredible winning three weeks in a row. It is like magic!” said the Thai youngster, whose English name is David and who won US$180,000, leaping into 21 st place on the final Asian Tour OOM from 133rd. “I was really confident before coming to this week because I just knowmy game. I hit my drives good, my irons and putting were also good, so my goal this week was to win. Fortunately, I made it.” It was only his 15 th start on the Asian Tour, and it mirrored the performance of American Berry Henson back in 2011 by winning on the Asian Tour a fortnight after claiming an ADT event. He said: “[At Aramco] I told my caddie that there is nothing to lose now. If we didn’t make this tournament we had to go to Q Amateur sensation Ratchanon ‘TK’ Chantananuwat [RIGHT] embraces his father/caddie after another fine performance. For Phachara Khongwatmai [BELOW] it was yet another near miss. Henrik Stenson [FAR RIGHT] may have arrived short on playing time but was still able to finish in second place. School but I just tried to play my best and hopefully just make top three but luckily I won it.” 2016 Open champion Stenson, playing in the third from last group out, made a valiant late run carding four consecutive birdies from the 12 th and another on 17 but he ran out of holes. He said: “It's been a good week here in Riyadh. It's been my first trip to the capital, it's been nice to see something else than Jeddah as well in that sense, where we played a lot of golf both the Saudi International and the LIV tournaments. So nice visit, a lot of friendly people. I came in with two months off, so it was a good opportunity for me to kind of see where we're at and what needs to be worked more on when we start preparing for next year in the middle of January.” The battle on the bubble to finish in the top-65 and secure Tour cards for 2024 as expected saw a close finish. Apart from Denwit’s ginormous leap, Kozuma made a big jump from 76 th to 53 rd . And South African Jbe Kruger who was in the 65 th and final spot coming into the week moved up to 63 rd after a tense weekend that saw himend in a tie for 18 th . 144