Saxon’s cunning Kunming plan
KUNMING, Yunnan — Runaway order of merit leader Charlie Saxon believes his strong track record at Yulongwan Golf Club will help his bid to win this week’s Kunming Championship and secure a third victory in four PGA Tour SeriesChina events.
Saxon, 25, finished runnerup to current PGA Tour player “Marty” Dou Zecheng at the 2016 Yulongwan Yunnan Open and in April finished sixth in the European Challenge Tour’s Belt and Road Colorful Yunnan Open, also at Yulongwan.
Following two wins and a tie for second in his past three PGA Tour Series-China events, Saxon is hungry for more as he seeks to secure a return to the Web.com Tour, the path to the PGA Tour.
“I’ve played really good golf here and I’m comfortable on this course. I nearly won in 2016, but Marty had a big finish like he always does and beat me,” said Saxon, who has won 692,335 yuan ($108,000) in his five PGA Tour Series-China events this year and is now ranked No 215 in the world.
“This year I was the 54-hole leader in the Challenge Tour event and didn’t have a great final round. I’m still coming into every week just trying to win,” added the American.
“I feel really good about my game and I know that when I’m playing well I’ve got a good chance to get into contention. That’s what it’s all about — having the chance to win come Sunday. Hopefully come this Sunday I’ll be in a position to win again.”
Saxon lifted another trophy on Tuesday as he captained the International team to victory in a friendly World Cup Challenge against China.
Saxon and English duo Steve Lewton and William Harrold competed against Team China’s Chen Zihao, Yao Yu and Motin Yeung in an impromptu three-onthree contest before a more formal footgolf target challenge and putting contest with mini soccer balls, with Lewton winning both contests.
Lewton, who has two top10s this year, and Harrold, fifth on the order of merit after two runner-up finishes, are threats to break the Tour victory drought by English players and hope the backdrop of the World Cup in Russia will be an inspiration.
The English contingent grew to seven after James Maw won Monday’s qualifier with a 6-under 65, having tied for 10th at the seasonopening Chengdu Championship after also progressing through qualifying.
Callum Tarren, eighth on the 2016 money list and currently 10th this year, Michael Skelton, Adam Sagar and Alex Belt, who tied for sixth in Guilin last week, are the other Englishmen in the 156player field.
“I think there’s quite a few of us playing this week and we’ve all been playing pretty good, so hopefully one of us can break through this week and get a win,” said Lewton, whose friend Harrold caddied for him in Guilin last weekend after missing the cut.
“Obviously, William’s been playing really well this year, so it was nice to have someone with a good bit of experience on the bag. It was really good fun.”
Harrold started the year with two seconds, and is hoping that clearing his mind of any expectations will help him rediscover his form.
“It would be awesome to have an English winner, but for me, the way to get there is to not worry about that. I’m not trying to think too much about my own game and go back to what I was doing the first couple of weeks,” said Harrold.
“Personally, I’ll be hoping for nothing, like I did the first couple of weeks where I didn’t really care too much. I just want to try to forget about where I am and try to have some fun.”
Every tournament on this year’s PGA Tour Series-China offers 1.5 million yuan ($234,000), a 25-percent increase over purse levels from 2016.
The PGA Tour established PGA Tour Series-China in 2014 as its third international developmental tour, following in the footsteps of PGA Tour Latinoamerica and the Mackenzie Tour – PGA Tour Canada.
Since its inception, PGA Tour Series-China players have received Official World Golf Ranking points for top finishes at official tournaments.