It certainly will not be remiss to proclaim that Asian golf is enjoying a golden era following a string of success on the PGA Tour that the region’s best will come under the spotlight at the 50th anniversary of the Players Championship this week.
When Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama rolled in a par putt for a closing 62 to win the Genesis Invitational last month for his ninth career title – surpassing South Korea’s K.J. Choi as the winningest Asian – it marked a significant moment for the game in the Far East. Matsuyama, the 2021 Masters champion, also set the stage for what may be a Players to remember for Asia.
Play begins Thursday at TPC Sawgrass’ Stadium Course in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. The winner will receive $4.5 million from the $25 million prize fund, the richest on the PGA Tour.
Not only did Matsuyama’s unprecedented triumph prove once more that the region’s best players are capable of winning the biggest events on iconic venues such as Riviera, it reinforced the desire and self-belief amongst the region’s players that chasing history was attainable.
Y.E. Yang’s giant-killing feat at the 2009 PGA Championship at Hazeltine National, where the South Korean took down Tiger Woods in his prime to become Asia’s first major champion, would forever be a milestone for the game. However, credit will go to Choi, who paved the initial way for other Asians to follow in his footsteps in the chase for golf’s biggest prizes.
The man who coined the phrase, “To be the best, you’ve got to play with the best,” hit the peak of his illustrious career with a playoff triumph over David Toms at the 2011 Players, taking the mantle as the first Asian winner on TPC Sawgrass’ Stadium Course.
Choi arrived in the U.S. in 2000 as the first Korean to earn a PGA Tour card. After amassing eight victories, the 53-year-old holds his triumph at the tour’s flagship event dearest as he beat the strongest field in the game on what is the purest test for elite golfers.
“Of my eight wins, I cried the most then,” Choi said. “I was genuinely thrilled. I think all the players desire to win this championship. Becoming the first Asian and Korean player to win, I was proud and excited.”
No doubt, he has been a source of inspiration to the current crop of Korean stars that includes Tom Kim, Sungjae Im, K.H. Lee, Byeong Hun An and Si Woo Kim, who himself recalls watching Choi lift the Players trophy on TV.
When Si Woo Kim played his way onto the PGA Tour as a teenager, he regularly sought out Choi for advice and practice rounds, with one of them coming before the 2017 Players. Kim, then only 21, already had won the Wyndham Championship some nine months earlier and played like a veteran at TPC Sawgrass to post a stunning three-stroke victory and become the youngest Players champion.
“I feel the Players is a major tournament,” Kim said. “When I played there for the first time, it was a very special feeling. K.J. won as the first Korean, and I had the victory next. It means a lot to me, and I’m very proud of the ‘youngest’ title, since it’s hard to do that at my age. Hopefully nobody will break my record. I want my name to be remembered.”
Kim, a four-time tour winner, will be amongst a strong Asian contingent looking to deliver a third Asian winner at the Players. The anticipated Asian contenders include his Korean compatriots, the in-form Matsuyama, who holds three top-10s at TPC Sawgrass, Taiwan’s C.T. Pan and Kevin Yu and China’s Carl Yuan.
Tom Kim, 21, is no stranger to rewriting the pages in golf’s record books himself where he is the second-youngest since World War II to win three PGA Tour titles following a successful defense at the Shriners Children’s Open last October. Only Tiger Woods was younger in achieving the feat.
This season, Kim has been largely subdued, with a best of T17 at the WM Phoenix Open. But with TPC Sawgrass providing the amphitheater to celebrate great champions, do not be surprised if Kim’s name should pop up on the leaderboard come Sunday afternoon in the race for the coveted golden swinging-golfer trophy.