Asian Tour Book 2024

NEVER IN DOUBT FOR SOLID RATTANON IN MACAO THAI STAR NEVER RELENTED AFTER OPENING 61 Rattanon Wannasrichan [right] celebrates his second win on the Asian Tour. I n the various world-class casinos in glitzy Macao, a fluke turn of luck on the tables can make you a winner. Or you can play golf like ‘Fluke’ did in the SJM Macao Open! There was no element of luck involved as Thailand’s Rattanon ‘Fluke’ Wannasrichan secured his second Asian Tour title with a dominant wire-to-wire win at the Macau Golf & Country Club. The 29-year-old Thai made a late bogey on the 17th hole on Sunday, but he had the luxury of a four-shot lead at that point. A four-under-par 66 helped him finish on 20-under, two ahead of compatriot Gunn Charoenkul (67) and four clear of third-placed Poosit Supupramai (64), who completed a clean sweep of the podium for Thailand. After making three pars on the opening day, Rattanon stepped on the gas and never took his foot off. Four straight birdies from the 13th hole, followed by an eagle on the par-five 18th saw him make the turn at six-under. He added three more birdies on his back nine to post a round of 61 – the best card of the day by two shots and eventually the lowest round of the tournament. Rattanon, whose previous win on the Asian Tour was the 2017 Thailand Open, shot rounds of 66 and 67 to move to 16-under par and one ahead of Gunn going into the final round. On Sunday he quickly pulled ahead with four birdies on his front nine, while his playing partner could only muster a one-under par score in that stretch with two bogeys. Meanwhile, Poosit was putting on some pressure with plenty of birdies but having started the day six shots behind the leader, it was going to take a spectacular collapse by Rattanon for him to get a chance of winning his maiden Asian Tour title. That never happened. After a promising 2018, when he also finished third in the ISPS Handa Match Play in Japan, Rattanon endured a horrible 2019 when he missed 23 cuts despite playing 37 events. When he collected his winning cheque 97 S JM MACAO OPEN MA C AU GO L F A N D CO U N T RY C L U B O C TO B E R 1 0 - 1 3 | P R I Z E MON E Y: U S $ 1 M I L L I ON