The cream of the Asian Tour will compete in next week’s PIF Saudi International powered by SoftBank Investment Advisers with six Asian Tour number ones and over 50 Asian Tour players, boasting hundreds of Tour titles between them, competing in the season-opening event on the 2022 Asian Tour.
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Joohyung Kim, the 19-year-old rising star from Korea, who secured the 2020-21 Asian Tour Order of Merit title at the weekend, after finishing joint second in the SMBC Singapore Open, will lead an impressive line-up which includes former Merit list champions Thongchai Jaidee from Thailand (2001, 2004, 2009), his compatriot Jazz Janewattananond (2019), Shubhankar Sharma from India (2018), Malaysia’s Gavin Green (2017), and Australian Scott Hend (2016).
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The tournament will be played at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club from February 3-6 and will feature the strongest field ever assembled for an Asian Tour event.
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Americans Dustin Johnson – the defending champion and 2019 winner – Bryson DeChambeau, and Xander Schauffele, all in the top-10 on the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR), are competing as well as six-time Major champion Phil Mickelson from the United States, Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell, the 2020 winner, Spaniard Sergio Garcia, and England’s Lee Westwood, Paul Casey, Tommy Fleetwood, and Ian Poulter, among others.
The tournament will also be one of the most lucrative in the Tour’s history with a purse of $5 million.
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The top-30 players from the Final Asian Tour Order of Merit booked their tickets to Saudi although Kim is actually exempt through a category for the top-300 on the OWGR. This also applied to Thailand’s Sadom Kaewkanjana, who claimed the SMBC Singapore Open to finish in second place on the Merit list, and Phachara Khongwatmai, Korean Bio Kim, Australian Wade Ormsby plus Jazz and Sharma.
A number of Asian players received invites to the tournament including Thongchai, his countryman Prom Meesawat and Filipinos Angelo Que and Miguel Tabuena.
Another of the invites is Thailand’s 14-year-old golfing wonderkid Ratchanon Chantananuwat. The amateur sensation, nicknamed “TK”, nearly won The Singapore International, before finishing in third place.
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