THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
nationthailand

Shin eyes grandstand finish

Shin eyes grandstand finish

Jakarta - American Micah Lauren Shin is confident of ending a two-year title drought on the Asian Tour when he tees up for the Bank BRI Indonesia Open which starts on Thursday.

 

The Korean-American, who is based in Davao, is coming into the week on the back of a rich vein of form. In his last three events, Shin finished third and tied-third respectively and believes he has the game and right partnership with his father to establish himself as a genuine contender at the Pondok Indah Golf Course.

Shin’s last victory on the Asian Tour was in the Philippines in 2017 which was also a breakthrough year for him. He secured his Asian Tour card for the first time after coming through his third attempt at the Qualifying School in 2017 and apart from his maiden win, went on to post a top-10 finish in Hong Kong to end that year in 12th place on the Order of Merit.

Singapore’s Quincy Quek is also optimistic of his chances having snapped his seven-year winless streak with his second victory on the Asian Development Tour (ADT) in Malaysia last week.

Quek, who received a late invitation to the event, now aims to follow-up on that success from the Tour’s feeder circuit and seek his breakthrough on the Asian Tour.

Indonesia’s Benita Kasiadi remains guided by his father to make the country proud and put up a strong performance in front of the home crowd this week.

The senior Kasiadi is the only Indonesian golfer to have won his country’s National open in 1989. 

Did you know?

  • Micah Lauren Shin enjoyed a tied-second place finish at the Asia-Pacific Open Diamond Cup in May before finishing third at the Sarawak Championship a fortnight ago.
  • He played in the Ciputra Golfpreneur Tournament presented by Panasonic in Jakarta last week and finish tied-third at the Asian Development Tour (ADT) event.
  • Prior to his start this week, Shin’s lone appearance at the Indonesia Open was in 2017 where he finished tied-35th.
  • Shin turned professional in 2013 and  won his maiden Asian Tour title at the 2017 Resorts World Manila Masters, where he defeated Arnond Vongvanij of Thailand on the first play-off hole with a birdie against a par. The victory came after he called a ruling on himself and was penalised two strokes for having 15 clubs in the bag in the final round.
  • He was named the rookie of the year that season after finishing 12th on the 2017 Order of Merit.
  • Quincy Quek claimed his first Asian Development Tour (ADT) title in seven years after pipping Australia’s Adam Blyth to the PGM Northport ADT Championship by one shot. 
  • With that win, the Singaporean ended a seven-year winless drought. His first ADT victory was in 2012 in the Philippines.
  • Benita Kasiadi turned professional in 2010 and holds four wins on the domestic circuit.
  • He was with Indonesia National team before turning professional and the Pondok Indah Golf Course was the team’s home course then.
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