Asian Tour Yearbook: 2023

UNSTOPPABLE STEVE! KOREAN-AMERICAN COMPLETES STUNNING WIRE-TO-WIRE VICTORY Seungsu Han [RIGHT] became the seventh American to win Korea’s national Open. S eungsu Han did not start the 65 th Kolon Korea Open on anyone’s radar but he really should have. He’d won big before, at the Casio World Open in Japan in 2017, and the 2020 LG Signature Players Championship on the Korean PGA Tour. And although it was some years before, he was a serious player in the amateur game, attending the University of Nevada- Las Vegas and winning the 2006 Porter Cup – a long-standing, prestigious amateur event in the United States won by some of the game’s biggest names, including Phil Mickelson, David Duval and Ben Crenshaw. So, when he claimed the jewel in the crown of Korean golf after recording an astonishing start-to-finish victory it perhaps should not have been such a surprise. For the fourth day on the trot, hot and sunny conditions prevailed at Woo Jeong Hills Country Club, but the 36-year-old stayed cool and handled the pressure of front running from the-get-go to close with an even-par 71 for a six-under-par winning total and a commanding six-shot triumph over Korea’s Kyungnam Kang, who also carded a 71. Korean Seungbin Choi claimed third, a shot further back, after shooting a 68 – the best round of the day, and one of only two sub 70 rounds – on the fantastic but formidable Woo Jeong Hills track, just over an hour outside of the capital Seoul. Han’s magnificent triumph also allowed him to secure one of the two spots on offer for The Open at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in July. Kang, an 11-time winner on the Korean PGA Tour, took the other place. Any doubts that Han, who started Sunday with a slim one-shot lead over Korean Jaekyeong Lee, would succumb to the pressure were put to rest on the front nine when he made the turn with a five- shot lead. It was just the cushion he was looking for despite an up-and-down front nine, consisting of three birdies and two bogeys. His lead was seven at one point on the back nine with the rest of the field going backwards while he was coasting. He averted a potential disaster on the par-four 15th after a wayward tee-shot left saw his ball finish in a terrible lie – in long, thick grass. Bravely opting not to take a drop he hit an explosive recovery shot 77 KOLON KOR E A OPEN WOO J EON G H I L L S CO U N T RY C L U B | J U N E 2 2 - 2 5 | P R I Z E MON E Y K RW 1 , 4 0 0 , 0 0 0 , 0 0 0 ( A P P ROX I MAT E LY U S $ 1 , 0 7 5 , 0 0 0 )