“It’s pretty crazy. It hasn’t totally sunk in yet.”
John Catlin has three wins on the DP World Tour and four Asian Tour wins. But his latest feat is why his name will be known by more golfers now than ever.
Catlin, a 33-year-old American, shot 11-under 59 after holing a 20-foot eagle putt on the final hole Saturday at the Asian Tour’s International Series Macau event in China. He became the first player to break 60 in Asian Tour history, and his bogey-free performance helped him take the lead heading into the final round at Macau Golf & Country Club.
“Yeah, I’m pretty much speechless,” Catlin said, who later said all of his passwords end with 59. “It’s pretty crazy. It hasn’t totally sunk in yet. Wow. Yeah, the emotions are hitting me for sure. Just everything I’ve been through over the last two years. To be here. It’s pretty special.”
Catlin sits at 18 under for the tournament, beating LIV Golf’s Jason Kokrak by two shots. Kokrak and Lucas Herbert each shot 62 on the par-70 layout.
The purse is $2 million at the second International Series event of the year.
In Anthony Kim’s first event back with a 36-hole cut, he didn’t make the weekend.
After back-to-back weeks playing for the no-cut events at LIV Golf in Jeddah and Hong Kong, Kim teed it up this week on the Asian Tour at the International Series Macau in China, continuing his return to professional golf. However, a 4-over 74 in the opening round followed by an even-par 70 on Friday resulted in Kim sitting T-130 after two rounds and missing the cut by eight shots.
It’s Kim’s first missed cut in more than 12 years (sarcasm font).
His final-round 65 in LIV Golf Hong Kong was an encouraging sign, but his comeback is going to take longer than a handful of rounds. He wasn’t the only LIV golfer to miss the cut at Macau, as did Harold Varner III, Graeme McDowell and Eugenio Chacarra.
On the flip side, LIV’s David Puig leads at 11 under after opening in 65-64. He’s tied on top with Jbe Kruger. Mito Pereira and Bjorn Hellgren are T-3 at 10 under.
Anthony Kim is going to play three straight weeks in his return to professional golf.
On Saturday, the 38-year-old carded his best round with LIV Golf, a 2-over 72 at LIV Golf Hong Kong. He sits 8 over, tied with Phil Mickelson, heading into the final round. Kim’s second round included four birdies, his most in his five rounds yet.
Next week, though LIV Golf doesn’t have an event, he will join roughly 20 other golfers from the circuit at the Asian Tour’s International Series Macau. Also in the field are Patrick Reed, Ian Poulter and Sergio Garcia, among others.
International Series Macau will be at Macau Golf and Country Club in China. It’s the second International Series event of the year, with Carlos Ortiz winning the first two weeks ago in Oman.
The Asian Tour has a 10-year, $300 million partnership with LIV Golf. The circuit also awards world ranking points. Last year, Andy Ogletree earned a season-long exemption into LIV for winning the Asian Tour’s Order of Merit.
The 2024 Masters is less than two months away, and the race for the OWGR top 50 is on.
We’re less than two months away from the first men’s major championship of the year, and the race to qualify via the Official World Golf Ranking is heating up.
One way to play into the 2024 Masters field is to secure a spot inside the top 50 of the OWGR the week before the event at Augusta National, April 11-14. PGA Tour players have seven more events to earn points, while the DP World Tour has five events on its schedule before the Masters. LIV Golf players, however, are running out of time.
This week, 21 of the 54 current players in the league led by Greg Norman and backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund have entered the Asian Tour’s first International Series event of the year in Oman. The International Series consists of 10 events – funded by LIV Golf – that offer significantly less prize money than LIV events. So why play? Under the Asian Tour wing, International Series events dish out OWGR points.
LIV Golf hasn’t been granted OWGR points despite numerous attempts (remember the MENA Tour alliance?), which has caused its players to plummet in the rankings over the last two years. Patrick Reed is 100th, Bryson DeChambeau is 169th and Dustin Johnson is 238th, to name a few.
Of the 21 LIV players in the Oman field, just three are currently inside the top 100: Lucas Herbert (80), Joaquin Niemann (81) and Dean Burmester (95).
“I think I have a different mindset for this year,” said Niemann after he won LIV’s season opener in Mexico earlier this month. “It kind of hurt me a little bit not being in the majors and I think also helped me to get motivation to kind of earn my spot back into the majors.”
Both Niemann and Burmester played their way into the 2024 Open Championship at Royal Troon via their Open Qualifying Series wins at the end of 2023, but a trip down Magnolia Lane may be out of reach. LIV has three events in the next seven weeks leading up to the Masters – Jeddah (March 1-3), Hong Kong (March 8-10) and Miami (April 5-7) – which makes any sort of top-50 push for the Masters not necessarily impossible, but certainly improbable.
The U.S. Open and Open Championship feature top 60 and top 50 exemptions, respectively, and while the PGA Championship doesn’t explicitly grant exemptions based on the OWGR, special exemptions are often given to players inside the top 100 to those who aren’t qualified through a set category.
Long story short, this week’s event in Oman is just the start of what will be a busy year for LIV players not already qualified for the majors.
The phenom from Thailand shot 7-under 64 to win the Saudi Open on Sunday.
Denwit Boriboonsub of Thailand made his first Asian Tour title Sunday his third win in three weeks.
The 19-year-old shot 7-under 64 to win the Saudi Open on Sunday to finish at 18 under and win by three shots over LIV Golf’s Henrik Stenson. The season-ending tournament was held at the at the Riyadh Golf Club.
Boriboonsub won the Aramco Invitational two weeks ago on the Asian Development Tour and then claimed the Thailand Open.
“It is an unbelievable feeling because it is incredible winning three weeks in a row. It is like magic,” Boriboonsub said.
Stenson is a former champion of the tournament.
“I came in with two months off, so it was a good opportunity for me to kind of see where we’re at and what needs to be worked more on when we start preparing for next year in the middle of January,” he said.
Ancer won wire-to-wire to claim his fourth professional victory.
Another LIV Golf and PGA Tour duel played out on Sunday, this time on the Asian Tour and with a little less hostility.
The field at this week’s PIF Saudi International featured a heavy dose of LIV Golf, as well as a few PGA Tour players who were granted releases to play. Cameron Young – who has expressed his interest in LIV in the past – gave chase in the final round but came up short of LIV’s Abraham Ancer, who won wire-to-wire by two shots at 19 under. Lucas Herbert, also a player on Tour, finished third at 15 under.
Ancer, 31, shot 64-68 on the weekend at Royal Greens Golf and Country Club in King Abdullah Economic City for his fourth professional win. The Mexican-American previously claimed the PGA Tour’s 2021 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational as well as the PGA Tour of Australasia’s 2019 Emirates Australian Open and 2015 Nova Scotia Open on the Korn Ferry Tour before he joined LIV Golf last year. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is LIV’s financial backer, as well as the title sponsor of the Saudi International.
Congratulations to @Abraham_Ancer on winning the 2023 PIF @SaudiIntlGolf powered by SoftBank Investment Advisers!🎉🎉🎉
He has become the first player to win wire-to-wire in the tournament and the second Mexican 🇲🇽 to win on the Asian Tour since 1995. 🙌#PIF_SaudiIntlGolfpic.twitter.com/5GLkBnlbTu
The Saudi International was created in 2019 by the regime’s Public Investment Fund and offered lucrative appearance fees to attract PGA Tour stars like Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau, who all later jumped to LIV. The tournament was originally a DP World Tour stop, but the European circuit, like the Tour, is also now being sued by LIV, which invested more than $200 million in the Asian Tour last year.
The LIV Golf League makes its 2023 season debut later this month at Mayakoba in Mexico while the Asian Tour returns to play next week with the International Series Oman.
The reigning Rookie of the Year is among the players granted permission to compete at an event in Saudi Arabia next month.
The PGA Tour’s reigning Rookie of the Year and a winner last season are among the players granted permission to compete at a controversial tournament in Saudi Arabia next month.
While the Tour has declined to reveal the exact number or the names of those who requested releases for the PIF Saudi International, multiple sources have told Golfweek that Cameron Young, Lucas Herbert and Cameron Champ are among the members who obtained waivers to compete in Saudi Arabia. Three Korn Ferry Tour players also received releases.
Herbert’s agent, Davis Holman, confirmed that the 27-year-old Australian plans to compete at King Abdullah Economic City on Feb. 2-5. Representatives for Young and Champ, a three-time winner on Tour who has emerged as a leading voice for racial equality, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. While sources say both Young and Champ obtained releases to compete in the Saudi International, it is not known if they actually intend to do so.
A Tour spokesperson declined to comment on specific players who have obtained releases.
PGA Tour members are required to obtain conflicting event releases to play events on other tours. In 2022, the Tour denied waivers to members for a Saudi-sponsored event near London, which was the first tournament staged by the rival LIV Golf league. The Tour and LIV Golf are now locked in an antitrust lawsuit that has bitterly divided players on both circuits.
The Saudi International was created in 2019 by the regime’s Public Investment Fund, which is also bankrolling LIV Golf. Offering lucrative appearance fees, the event attracted many high-profile PGA Tour stars who later jumped to LIV, including Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau.
The tournament was originally a DP World Tour stop, but the European circuit is also now being sued by LIV. The 2023 Saudi International is not officially part of LIV Golf’s schedule but is instead listed as an event on the Asian Tour, in which LIV invested more than $200 million last year. That distinction accounts for why the PGA Tour did not reverse precedent and deny releases to members, who are independent contractors.
The number of Tour members seeking waivers to play the Saudi International is down sharply from 2022, even allowing for the players who have since signed with LIV Golf.
Asked why Herbert has opted to play the event and whether he is concerned that doing so will alienate fellow PGA Tour members given the ongoing litigation, his agent Holman said: “He has played the event in the past, enjoys the golf course and it fits well into his playing schedule following the Dubai Desert Classic.”
Herbert has competed in the Saudi International for the past three years, with his best finish a tie for 21st in 2022. Young and Champ have never previously competed in the tournament.
“Growing up, Kyi Hla was ‘the man’ in Asia, the guy we looked up to, the name every golfer knew.”
Former Asian Tour executive chairman Kyi Hla Han (chee la haan), a beloved figure in Asian golf who tried to mold the Asian Tour in the likeness of the PGA Tour, died on Feb. 19. He was 61.
The Asian Tour said that he died in Singapore due to complications from cancer treatment. He is survived by his wife and two daughters.
“Asian golf has lost one of its greatest players, its greatest personalities, and its greatest leaders,” said current commissioner & chief executive Cho Minn Thant.
Han, who was profiled in Golfweek in 2007, was the bridge from the Asian Tour’s humble beginnings and hardships to its ascent in the world-golf pecking order.
Han was born in Burma, known today as Myanmar, the son of a diplomat who was transferred to the United States as a military attaché when Han was 2. Soon he joined his three brothers and father on the golf course, developing his interlocking grip after reading Jack Nicklaus’ “Golf My Way.”
Han’s family moved to Manila in the early 1970s when he was 9. The next year, he says he won 11 titles in a row against players four years older, stoking his dream of playing the PGA Tour someday. Han represented Burma in the 1980 World Cup in Bogota, Colombia. He turned pro when he checked in for the event, which earned him exempt status onto the old Asian circuit, and promptly collected a check for $3,000. Han won 12 tournaments, including the 1994 Singapore Open and 1999 Volvo China Open.
Extremely saddened by the news of Kyi Hla Han. He has been a dear friend of mine for many, many years. An amazing golfer, and an even better human being. He knew how to enjoy his life on and off the golf course. Thanks for making our lives better Kyi Hla. #RIPhttps://t.co/ip2RFtmC0z
Han was nicknamed the “Asian Ian Woosnam” as much for the physical resemblance – short and powerful – as for his booming drives. Recalls Iain Steel, an Asian Tour member born in Malaysia: “Growing up, Kyi Hla was ‘the man’ in Asia, the guy we looked up to, the name every golfer knew.”
Han was a trailblazer, one of the first Asians to travel overseas and compete. He averaged 35 events per year, playing in Asia from February to April; in Europe from May to September; and in Australia from October to January.
When Han won the 1999 Volvo China Open, his father walked all four rounds with him. That season, Han won $204,211 and the tour’s Order of Merit.
It earned him exemptions into the 2000 World Golf Championships–American Express Championship in Spain and the British Open at St. Andrews. A picture of Han standing by the Swilcan Bridge adorned his office wall for years. He missed the cut, but it hardly matters now.
“I told our photographer ‘Get right behind me. . . . That’s the shot I want,’ ” says Han of his precious moment captured in time.
Madasamy Murugiah (second left) with Kyi Hla Han (center) and other Handa Singapore Classic partners, Pan Pacific’s Frederic Jenni (left), SGA’s Andrew Kwa (second right) and OCC’s Dominic Ang (right).
Known for his sunny disposition, an infectious joie de vivre and constant chatter, Han acted as if everybody is his friend. He attended an American school and said his English is better than his Burmese, a skill that enabled him to become a de facto spokesman for Asian players.
Han tried PGA Tour Q-School seven times but never made it through. After retiring from competitive golf in 2004, Han joined the circuit as commissioner. In 2006, he became the first Asian executive chairman of the Tour and stepped down in 2016.
During his tenure, he helped promote events like the Singapore Open into an event that drew marquee players, the HSBC Champions as a World Golf Championships event beginning in 2009 and the CIMB Classic became the circuit’s first co-sanctioned event with the PGA Tour.
To honor him, the Asian Tour will create a Kyi Hla Han Future Champion Award to aid the development of juniors and golf in Asia.
Varner sits a shot ahead of Spaniard Adri Arnaus (-11) and two shots up on Tommy Fleetwood.
Harold Varner III dropped a 15-foot birdie putt on the final hole of the third round to take the lead at the Saudi International in King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia.
Varner, who finished T22 at the American Express two weeks in his only PGA Tour start of this calendar year, rolled through Saturday with a 68 at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club.
Now at 12 under for the tournament, Varner sits a shot ahead of Spaniard Adri Arnaus (-11) and two shots up on Tommy Fleetwood.
“I’m just hanging in there,” Varner III said after his round. “I did a good job of just slowing down and just doing my job. I love competing. I mean, the greatest thing in life is competing and just working at it.”
The Saudi event, which is no longer associated with the DP World Tour (formerly the European Tour), is now part of the Asian Tour. Saudi Arabia made a $200 million investment in the tour last year.
He took to Twitter on Saturday, saying “everyone needs to chill.” DeChambeau has tossed aside claims that his excessive workout schedule and weight gain in his pursuit of distance was the cause of his latest injury, stating that he slipped and fell on Tuesday.
“This is just the start for us,” said Greg Norman, CEO of LIV Golf Investments.
LIV Golf Investments announced another $100 million investment into the Asian Tour as well as the first few events of its newly launched International Series, beginning in March.
“This is just the start for us,” said Greg Norman CEO of LIV Golf Investments. “The 10-event series we’ll be starting off is just the beginning. It’s the beginning of an exciting new journey.”
The International Series will debut in Thailand at Black Mountain Golf Club from March 3-6 and include stops in England, Korea, Vietnam, the Middle East, China, Singapore, and Hong Kong and will feature prize purses ranging from $1.5 to $2 million per event.
The announcement of a tournament staged in London at Centurion Club from June 9-12 and offering a $2 million purse marks the Asian Tour’s first foray into Europe and will be played not far the headquarters of the DP World Tour. Asian Tour CEO Cho Minh Thant downplayed the move as a formal attack on its former partner.
“If you look at the way the other tours are operating, as well, there’s instances where the PGA Tour plays in Asia. There’s instances where the DP World Tour is trying to or playing in Asia as well,” he said. “Obviously, there’s no boundaries anymore in the world of golf.”
“The International Series is not going to be geo-fenced,” Norman added. “Just because the International Series is associated with the Asian Tour, we want to get the message out there that it’s just not specifically for the Asian region, and that’s critically important for everybody to understand. Healthy competition and respectful competition should be spread globally.”
The second half of the year will see stops in Korea, Vietnam, and Indonesia before heading to the Middle East and then culminating in China, Singapore, and Hong Kong. Due to COVID-19 restrictions still in place in those countries, dates and sites for these events will be announced at a later time.
LIV Golf Investments also bumped its commitment to invest in the Asian Tour from $200 million to $300 million.
“In a nutshell, what have we really done? We’ve identified a new opportunity out of a lost opportunity,” said Norman, who called the Asian Tour a “sleeping giant.” “It’s because we believe in the players. We believe in the partners that we’re associated with, the Asian Tour. We believe in the future of where the game of golf can go.”
Each of the 10 events will be broadcast live across the globe, with plans to attract an international field of headline talent.
In October, Norman was announced as CEO of LIV Golf Investments. PIF, which operates on behalf of the government of Saudi Arabia and ranks as one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, is the majority shareholder in LIV Golf Investments.
The announcement comes on the eve of the Asian Tour’s new season with the $5 million PIF Saudi International starting this Thursday at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club. The field is comprised of six of the top 20 players in the world competing – including Americans Dustin Johnson, the 2019 and 2021 champion, and Bryson Dechambeau – as well as over 50 of the Asian Tour’s most prominent players and represents the strongest field in the history of the Asian Tour. The tournament, which is not part of the International Series, also offers one of the Asian Tour’s most lucrative purses.
