Yang, Chopra join Open field
PATTAYA: South Korean star YE Yang, the first Asian to win a Major, and two-time PGA Tour champion Daniel Chopra from Sweden will compete in this week’s Singha Corporation Thailand Open.
The talented duo have collected a wealth of titles in Asia but Thailand Open, now in its 45th year, is one piece of silverware missing from their trophy cabinets.
The US$1 million Thailand Open teesoff on Thursday on the Plantation Course at Siam Country Club and is jointly sanctioned by OneAsia and the Japan Golf Tour Organisation.
Yang and Chopra join an impressive field that includes defending champion Prayad Marksaeng from Thailand and his illustrious compatriots Thaworn Wiratchant, Kiradech Aphibarnrat and Prom Meesawat.
Yang is best known for his victory in the 91st PGA Championship in 2009 when he overcame a two-shot deficit going into the final round to finish three strokes ahead of American Tiger Woods, his playing partner.
The victory was the first Major championship for a male player born in Asia, surpassing the runners-up finishes achieved by Lu Lianghuan in the 1971 Open Championship, Isao Aoki in the 1980 US Open and TC Chen in the 1985 US Open
Yang is also a four-time champion on the JGTO, a two-time winner of the Korean Open (2006 and 2010) and he lifted the Volvo China Open trophy in 2010. The 43-year-old also claimed the HSBC Champions event in China in 2006.
Both the 2010 Korean and China national Opens were part of OneAsia so he will be looking for his third OneAsia victory this week.
Chopra won the Asian Tour Qualifying School in Thailand in January and will be looking to rekindle that form in The Kingdom this week.
Also the last time he played in the Thailand Open, in 2009, he finished a credible sixth place in Phuket.
“It is great to be playing in Thailand again,” said the 41-year-old Chopra. “I enjoy playing in Thailand and I hope to do well at the Singha Corporation Thailand Open.”
Two victories on the US PGA Tour catapulted Chopra onto the world stage. His breakthrough came in 2007 when he recorded his first win at the Ginn sur Mer Classic.
That victory earned him a place in the prestigious season-opening MercedesBenz Championship in Hawaii the following year where he went on to take top spot.
Chopra has won on nearly every Tour in the game of golf and has claimed 13 professional tournaments around the world. The list includes three Nationwide Tour events, three events in Europe, and six tournaments in Asia (two each in India, Malaysia, and Chinese Taipei).
The talented golfer played on 10 different golf tours on four continents before joining the US PGA Tour in 2004.
Koreans Choi Jinho and Moon Kyongjun, winners of the previous two tournaments on the 2015 OneAsia schedule, are also playing. Last month, Moon triumphed in the GS Caltex Maekyung Open and the following week Choi tasted victory in the SK Telecom Open.
Korean KT Kim, the only player from his country to win the Japan money-list, is also competing.