The 39th Shinhan Donghae Open, co-hosted by the three Asian Tours of Korea and Japan, ended with Go Gun-taek’s dramatic overtime win.
Over the course of four days starting on the 7th, players representing each country in Asia showed off their talents and personalities. This tournament was the third to be held by three Asian tours since 2019 and was held in Korea, leaving three meanings behind.
Dramatic overtime match
This year’s Shinhan Donghae Open had a nail-biting match in the final hole. As Thailand’s Phachara Kongwatmai (Thailand) finished in the lead with 9 birdies and no bogeys, Go Gun-taek, who started first, dropped the ball into the water at the par-5 13th hole, where he needed to save at strokes, and recorded a double bogey. .
Kongwatmai finished with 19 under par, opening the gap by three strokes. From then on, the difficult chase began. Go Gun-taek made consecutive birdies on the 14th and 15th holes, and saved a narrow par putt on the 17th hole. He made up for the 3 stroke gap by adding a birdie in the last hole.
Overtime made him sweat hard. After both players hit their tee shots well, Go Gun-taek sent his second shot into the rough. Kongwatmai grabbed the wood there and attempted a two-on, but the ball sliced and fell into the water. Even after receiving a penalty and taking his fourth shot, the tension continued as he made a mid-to-long par putt. However, Go Gun-taek’s downhill birdie putt was the highlight that ended the tournament.
A contest of Asia’s best players
Keita Nakajima, representing the Japanese Men’s Professional Golf (JGTO), finished tied for 3rd place after hitting 6 under par on the last day, receiving a total prize money of 100 million yen. By breaking through, he rose to the top of the JGTO prize money. Ryutaro Nagano, who finished 19th, rose to 4th place in JGTO prize money.
Gensei Hirata, who finished 9th at the Shinhan Donghae Open, has his 2 wins of the season and is 5th in prize money. Hiroshi Iwata, who finished 25th, has one win of the season and is 6th in prize money. In addition, Song Young-han, who won the JGTO Tour this year, ranked 7th in prize money, and Shugo Imahira, J.B. Kruger (South Africa), and Ryo Ishikawa took 8th, 9th, and 11th place. Most of Japan’s top prize money winners participated in Korean competitions.
Kongwatmai, ranked 9th in money on the Asian Tour, who had 9 birdies and no bogeys on the last day and had a thrilling extended match with Go Gun-taek, is a shining supporting actor and a representative player of Thailand who is also active in Live Golf. In addition, Miguel Tabuena (Philippines), Kiran Vincent (Zimbabwe), and Sadom Keukanzana (Thailand) are all in the top 10 in Asian Tour prize money.안전놀이터
This competition was recognized by 48.93 points in the world rankings (OWGR), and champion Go Gun-taek received 8.51 points, jumping 220 places from 549th to 329th in the world. It was more than double the competition point of the LX Championship a week ago (21.73).
which welcomes international competitions, is a course that has the advantage of accessibility to galleries in the metropolitan area.
Aside from criticism of the course management due to the hot summer, many galleries visited during the race weekend. It was calculated that a total of 21,006 people entered on the 4th. On the 18th hole, where the overtime match took place on the last day of the tournament, there was no room to step due to the gallery from tee to green.
At the end of April, the Korean Tour held a joint event with the DP World Tour at Jack Nicklaus GC Korea in Songdo, Incheon for the first time in 10 years. However, perhaps due to the rainy weather at the time, there were not many galleries, and because the channel had unfamiliar players, the viewership ratings were not very high.
The Shinhan Donghae Open, a major tournament that provides the benefit of five years of domestic participation, was broadcast on JTBC in addition to JTBC Golf and JTBC Golf & Sports over the weekend. Befitting the 39th anniversary of the event, Japanese reporters were also eager to report at the press center. There was also Japanese interpretation at Nakajima’s press conference after the third round.
Go Gun-taek’s winning interview was translated into English as well as Japanese. Shinhan Financial Group, the organizer, took great care to provide the press center with a ‘media guidebook’ that compiled data appropriate for its long history. This tournament is the only one in Korea, regardless of how it is conducted in the Masters or the long-standing major PGA tour.
