The Phuket News Novosti Phuket Khao Phuket

Login | Create Account | Search


Jazz victorious on home turf as he wins Thailand Masters

Jazz victorious on home turf as he wins Thailand Masters

GOLF: Thailand's Jazz Janewattananond won the Thailand Masters on home turf yesterday (Dec 22), celebrating a super season with his second major Asian Tour victory this month.

Golf
By Bangkok Post

Monday 23 December 2019 09:31 AM


Jazz Janewattananond wins his second major Asian Tour in a month with a victory on home turf at the Thailand Masters yesterday (Dec 22). Photo AFP.

Jazz Janewattananond wins his second major Asian Tour in a month with a victory on home turf at the Thailand Masters yesterday (Dec 22). Photo AFP.

The 24-year-old ended the final round with a six-under-par 65, finishing the 15.1 billion baht tournament with a total of 261, 23 under par.

Trailing him with an 18-under total of 266 were Belgium's Thomas Detry and fellow Thais Suradit Yongcharoenchai and Phachara Khongwatmai.

Jazz was solid in the first two days at the Phoenix Gold Golf and Country Club in Pattaya, with rounds of 69 and 67, before setting the third round alight with a string of seven birdies along the way to an 11-under-par 60.

On Sunday he followed up with birdies on three of the first four holes. He sank another five birdies during the day to extend his lead, completing his final putt with an emotional celebration.

Jazz is the 2019 Asian Tour Order of Merit champion with a victory in the Indonesian Masters just a week ago to add to his earlier wins in the Singapore and Korea Opens.

"It's a huge honour to win on home soil and especially at an event promoted by the Jaidee Foundation," said Jazz. "It's indeed a very good year. I had four wins this year and I ended the year the way I started.

"I don't think I was actually cruising towards another win today as I was really tired and made some silly mistakes. But I managed to recover well and it was really nice to close the round with that long birdie putt from 15 feet.

"I set myself small realistic goals so that I can achieve them and I'm glad I managed to achieve that this week," he added.

With this victory, Jazz became only the second player in Asian Tour history to win four events in the same season. The only player to do so previously was compatriot Thaworn Wiratchant in 2005.

And with the $90,000 winner's cheque, which boosted his annual earnings to $1,058,524.71, Jazz became only the fifth Asian Tour player to surpass the $1 million mark in a season. Before Jazz this had only been achieved by Jeev Milkha Singh (2008), Kiradech Aphibarnrat (2013), Anirban Lahiri (2015) and Scott Hend (2016).

Jazz will move up to 40th in the world rankings, one week after cracking the world top-50 for the first time in his career.

Compatriot Suradit Yongcharoen­ chai tried to surmount a late challenge by firing seven birdies and one eagle for a 62 but it was not enough to catch the 2019 Asian Tour Order of Merit champion on a day where he was simply unstoppable.

Suradit ended his last event of the year by sharing second place with compatriot Phachara Khongwatmai and Belgium's Thomas Detry.

American Berry Henson also enjoyed his second top-10 effort of 2019 with a tied-seventh finish at the Thailand Masters.

"It has been a very good year for me and even better to finish it off with such a good score too. I cannot ask for more," said Suradit.

"I won once already at the Mercuries Taiwan Masters and ended the year inside the top-10 on the Asian Tour Order of Merit.

"My goals are definitely going to be higher for 2020," added the Thai star, who finished fourth in the Habitat for Humanity standings with a haul of $277,461.29.