Taiwan’s Chan Shih-chang yesterday sealed a gripping last-hole victory in the Blue Canyon Phuket Championship, as golf’s Asian Tour made a dramatic return after a 20-month COVID-19 break.
Chan bagged his third Tour victory with a last round 68 to finish 18 under par for the tournament, a shot clear of Kim Joo-hyung of South Korea and Thailand’s Sadom Kaewkanjana.
Sadom was neck and neck with Chan going into the par-four 18th hole, but he could not make home advantage count, sending his tee shot into the rough to drop a shot at the crucial moment.
Photo: AFP / Asian Tour / Paul Lakatos
“It’s impossible, it’s amazing,” said Chan, whose last win on the Asian Tour came in the 2016 Asia-Pacific Diamond Cup in Japan.
That same year, the world No. 1,366 also won Thailand’s King’s Cup.
“Thailand is my lucky country,” he said on Saturday.
Photo: AFP / Asian Tour / Paul Lakatos
“I am so happy to be back after the problems everyone has had with COVID. My front nine was not very good, but an eagle on nine turned things around,” he said yesterday.
Chan was joint overnight leader with Sihwan Kim, but a pedestrian start yesterday left him three shots adrift of the American at the turn, even after eagling the ninth.
The 35-year-old proved his mettle with a blistering back nine featuring four successive birdies to set up the last-hole shoot-out with Sadom.
“I was first to go on the tee and I thought if I can hit it on the fairway, I can put some pressure on Sadom,” Chan said.
“I hit it to the left rough, but Sadom was even more left in the rough,” he added.
The Thai missed a 12-foot putt for par, leaving Chan to nervously sink his own and claim the US$180,000 winner’s check.
Afterward, he thanked his young son.
“It’s my second win since my baby boy arrived eight months ago. I guess it’s baby luck,” he said.
The US$1 million tournament on the popular Thai island of Phuket marked the first Asian Tour tee-off since the Malaysian Open in March last year.
The players on Thursday move to Phuket’s Laguna Phuket Championship before heading to Singapore for two more events in January to finally round off the longest season in Asian Tour history.
The Blue Canyon event came a month after the organization announced it would be launching 10 new events next year in partnership with LIV Golf Investments, a company backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, worth a total of US$200 million.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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