Asian Tour Yearbook: 2023

NUMBERS ADD UP FOR CLINICAL OGLETREE I t’s all very well making birdies and eagles. But if a professional golfer’s round is also littered with bogeys and worse, they’ll rarely be challenging for titles. That was the clinical conclusion Andy Ogletree reached when attempting to identify how he could raise his game to new levels and become a serial winner. He duly put together a simple gameplan … and then executed magnificently. For the self-professed ‘small-town boy from Mississippi’ with an urge to see the world by playing the game he loves, 2023 could hardly have gone any better. The bare facts are these – in 11 starts on the Asian Tour over the course of the season, he won twice (International Series Qatar in February and August’s International Series England) along with five other top-10s. Furthermore, he didn’t miss a single cut and only twice finished outside the top-16. It all added up to him winning the Asian Tour Order of Merit with 2,128.26 points, almost double the tally of second-placed Miguel Tabuena from the Philippines. It was a similar tale in The International Series’ merit standings where he compiled US$1.1 million in earnings, almost double the prize money won by second-placed Spaniard David Puig. En route to his commanding early-season victory at Doha Golf Club, Ogletree gave a fascinating insight into his mindset and strategy. “Eliminating three-putts, eliminating short-sided iron shots, eliminating bogeys with wedges and eliminating bogeys on par-fives is kind of the goal. That’s how I define how I’m playing – if I’m doing those things. And I’ve done that really well the last few weeks,” said Ogletree, who would continue to do so for the duration of the campaign. From 44 tournament rounds, there were 27 sub-70 returns and an ability to go low as illustrated by four 65s, a 64 and a 63. Notably, he was able to find a slick final-round gear in tournaments. On nine of 11 occasions he posted closing rounds in the 60s. A last-day 63 in the season-opening Saudi International was a portent of what was to come, while his closing 64 to clinch the International Series England title was almost faultless. Consider also that he had just five rounds of worse than 72 (two 75s at the International Series Oman, an opening 74 in the season-ending BNI Indonesian Masters presented by TNE and a couple of 73s). It wasn’t just his course management and shot selection that stood him out from 22