Seongnam, Korea: With a super-charged performance, Jung Chan-min, nicknamed the ‘Korean Hulk’, completed a shock wire-to-wire victory in the weather-shortened GS Caltex Maekyung Open.
It was a memorable, maiden Asian Tour triumph for the 23-year-old who is best known as one of the biggest hitters in Korea, topping the driving distance stats on the Korean PGA Tour last year.
Nonetheless, he’d only finished in the top-10 twice in domestic events since turning professional three years ago.
“I won a big tournament wire-to-wire, so I feel good,” said Jung, who tied for 46th in his sole Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship (AAC) appearance in 2018 in Singapore.
“I sensed the victory with an eagle on the fourth hole. After that, I felt at ease. I used my driver on nine holes today, I used it often because I was confident.
“My putting has changed a lot, I had a lot of worries before, but it’s solved, the anxiety is gone.”
The current strength of men’s amateur golf in Korea was underlined by the fact that three of the country’s top current amateurs placed in the top-10 in one of Korea’s showpiece professional events.
Six strokes behind Jung’s winning 54-hole total of 16-under 197 in joint second place was Song Min-hyuk, who soared up the leaderboard with a closing 64 at Namseoul Country Club to claim low amateur honours for the second year in succession.
Song, who placed joint fifth at the 2022 AAC in Thailand and who plans to turn pro this year, said: “I played very well today; both my putting and shots were so good that I quickly forgot any disappointment after I made a mistake.
“As an amateur I’m thrilled to finish in second place. Last year I was tied for the lead after two rounds, but it’s great to finish second in the final round.”
Three shots behind Song in joint eighth place at Namseoul were Jang Yu-bin and Cho Woo-young.
Cho tied for third in the AAC in Dubai in 2021 and was equal 20th last year in Thailand. Jang also made the cut in both of those events finishing tied 28th in 2021 and joint 24th in 2022.
Jang Yu-bin is currently 132nd in the World Amateur Golf Ranking with Cho 162nd and Song 515th.