Seoul, May 5, 2010: Japan Tour star Kim Kyung-tae is eyeing up his first title in three years in his native homeland as he competes in this week’s GS Caltex Maekyung Open in Seoul, OneAsia’s third event of the season.
The event, which rewards the winner with a Green Jacket, tees off on Thursday at the Namseoul Country Club.
Kim, Korea’s third-highest ranked golfer behind Y.E. Yang and K.J. Choi, won the 2007 Maekyung title by five shots from Liang Wenchong during his memorable rookie season, when he topped the Korean Tour Order of Merit.
“It’s important to win again in Korea as I haven’t won since July 2007. I won here at Namseoul before, but actually I find the course difficult as the greens are a little tricky. It’s not similar to anything I’ve played in Japan,” he said in reference to the 6,962-yard layout.Turning pro after winning the individual gold at the 2006 Asian Games, Kim won three Korean Tour titles in 2007 to top the money list. He has since played mostly on the Japan Tour, finishing eighth on last year’s Order of Merit following four runner-up finishes.
Now 23, he’s determined to win again in his homeland on a mountainous course where he used to practise regularly as a member of the national team.
“It used to be my local course and I played here a lot from the age of 15,” Kim said. “However, I won’t think about my chances of winning here unless I’m in contention on Sunday.”
Kim has finished tied for sixth and 13th at the Maekyung for the past two years, as Hwang Inn-choon and Bae Sang-moon have walked away with the trophy.
Kim believes the pre-tournament favourites include defending champion Bae, also 23, and veteran Choi Sang-ho, Namseoul’s head pro who won the event in 2005 at the age of 50.
Bae, for one, thinks he’s in with a good chance of putting on the Green Jacket again as he bids to win the Korean Tour Order of Merit for the third straight year.
“I’m playing well and I’m confident of my chances this week. I’m looking forward to the event as it always attracts big crowds,” said Bae, who became OneAsia’s first Korean champion last year when he successfully defended his Kolon-Hana Bank Korea Open title.
A local winner looks likely at Namseoul where Korean golfers occupied 11 of the top 12 places at last year’s event, a year after locals occupied all but one of the leading 14 spots.
This week’s challengers include a 37-strong line-up from Australia, contingents from China, Japan and New Zealand, and players from Chinese Taipei, USA, Canada and Germany.
Stephen Allan, a former regular on the European Tour then the PGA Tour, is targeting his first OneAsia title after finishing joint ninth at the season-opening Luxehills Chengdu Open in China.
“It’s a beautiful course and it will suit me if I play well. You can be aggressive, although the back nine is a little tighter than the front nine, where you have more chances to use driver,” said Allan, a former winner of the German and Australian Opens.
“My game’s feeling pretty good and I think some of the Aussies could do well this week, even through it is different grass than we’re used to.”
Former China Tour winners Wu Weihuang and Chen Jian are among an eight-strong contingent from China, which includes big-hitting Yuan Hao and young guns James Su Dong and amateur Hu Mu.
Su, who was educated in Canada, is still finding his feet since turning pro last year after a spectacular 2008 season where he recorded three top-three finishes on the China Tour as an amateur.
“I’ve been spending a bit of time with my coach recently and we’ve been making minor adjustments, and I’m now hitting the ball a bit lower but straighter. We’ll see how it goes this week,” Su said.
ENDS
About OneAsia
OneAsia is a non-profit organisation developed to maximize elite tournament opportunities in Asia-Pacific. The Founding members of OneAsia are the China Golf Association, the Korea Golf Tour, the Korea Golf Association and the PGA of Australia. The mission of OneAsia is not just to allow the region's best players to gain access to more events, but to ultimately provide them with an alternative pathway to the PGA Tour and the European Tour, thus retaining the best golfing talent in the region without compromising their development.
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Janice Lee Fang,
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