Byeong Hun An overcame a challenging day to set up a thrilling final-round showdown with fellow South Korean Tom Kim at the top of the Genesis Championship leaderboard.
Related: Byeong Hun An stars on home soil in Genesis Championship
The home favourite had birdied the most holes during the first two rounds and looked set to accelerate from the chasing pack when he picked up a shot at the first on a glorious Saturday at Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea.
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However, the World Number 36 only picked up two more shots, alongside two bogeys, in his one under 71 to sit alongside Kim at 12 under par.
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The pair are one shot ahead of Frenchman Antoine Rozner, who carded a seven under 65 to initial set the clubhouse target, and Portugal’s Ricardo Gouveia and Italian Francesco Laporta in Incheon.
Gouveia, who started the week in 154th place, moved up to provisional 107th in the Race to Dubai Rankings in Partnership with Rolex after carding a three-under 69 to boost his chances of earning his playing rights for next season.
Denmark’s Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, Japan’s Rikuya Hoshino and Spaniard Alejandro Del Rey are at ten under. South African Brandon Stone, New Zealand’s Daniel Hillier and first round leader Ivan Cantero are one shot further back.
The Genesis Championship is the final event of the Back 9 and the last opportunity for members to earn their playing rights for the 2025 Race to Dubai, with the top 114 on the Race to Dubai Rankings in Partnership with Rolex slated to keep their cards.
Player quotes
Byeong Hun An: I struggled a little bit today. The last two rounds have been almost perfect. It’s a little disappointing, driver was great but my shot standard wasn’t as sharp as the first two days. I didn’t have many birdie chances out there and when I did, I would just miss it by a little bit. It was one of those days. It’s golf. It’s been great the last few days, it happens and hopefully better tomorrow.
I don’t think it can get any better. I said at the start of the week that I would love to play with Tom in the final group on Sunday and hopefully one of us can come out on top.
It’s a tight leaderboard so who knows who will win, but it will be fun. I love playing with him because he’s such a great guy and player, so we had fun at the President’s Cup and feel like I’ve seen him every week.
It would be nice to win. That was one of my goals and I’m still lucky to have a chance in the last event of the year for me. I’ve still got 18 holes to go.
Tom Kim: It felt great, just to finish off the way I finished off after that bad break on 15 it makes dinner taste so much better. Obviously made a few mistakes this week but I feel like those little things are kind of coming together to back up those mistakes.
I felt like I was pretty flat the first nine holes, I was one under par, couldn’t really get anything going and pins were tucked and the wind tough to play. I feel like I made a few good putts and got some momentum to get myself to four under par, especially after the birdie on 14, and what happened on 15 you just can’t control it.
One bad swing, you get really unlucky and it hits the cart path and goes out of bounds, and I had no idea, I was walking up the whole time thinking it was in the rough, so to see that ball go out of bounds, I just made sure by the time I got to the tee and got rid of it, that I definitely gave myself a chance to make bogey and I couldn’t do that, but I told myself going up to that next tee that I am birdieing a few holes coming in.
It would be more special because I haven’t been back at home since before I got to the PGA TOUR, so to be able to have a good day tomorrow and finish it off would be really special.
