Asian Tour, 22 December 2019: Thailand’s Jazz Janewattananond signed off from his 2019 Asian Tour season just like the way he started when he cruised to a commanding five-shot victory at the Thailand Masters on Sunday.
It has been a stunning year for the 24-year-old as he triu
mphed again for the second time in two weeks after closing with a six-under-par 65 at the Phoenix Gold Golf and Country Club.
Jazz got off to a flying start when he won the Asian Tour’s season-opener in Singapore in January. 12 months later, he would end the year by capturing his sixth Asian Tour title and fourth this season on home soil.
Jazz’s winning total of 23-under-par 261 at a venue which he won before too meant he will break into the top-40 on the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR), a target he had set out to achieve at the start of the week.
Compatriot Suradit Yongcharoenchai tried to surmount a late challenge by firing seven birdies and one eagle for a 62 but it was still not enough to catch the 2019 Asian Tour Order of Merit champion on a day where he was simply unstoppable.
Surdait ended his last event of the year by sharing second place with compatriot Phachara Khongwatmai and Belgium’s Thomas Detry while American Berry Henson also enjoyed his second top-10 of 2019 with a tied-seventh finish at the Thailand Masters.
Did you know?
- With this win Jazz Janewattanond will become 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.
- The Phoenix Gold Golf and Country Club was the scene of Jazz’s second Asian Tour win when he emerged victorious at the Queen’s Cup presented by Bangchak last year.
- He will also surpass US$1,000,000 in earnings this season. Before Jazz this had only been achieved by Jeev Milkha Singh (2008), Kiradech Aphibarnrat (2013), Anirban Lahiri (2015) and Scott Hend (2016).
- In a final round of six-under-par 65 that included eight birdies, Jazz one-putted 13 times and only needed 24 putts. He also ranked first in the field in putts per greens-in-regulation for the week.
- In his last two events on the Asian Tour this season, Jazz is a combined 46-under-par, an average of -5.75 or 65.75 per round.
- Shooting a round of 11-under-par 60 in yesterday’s third round, he equaled the lowest ever round in an official Asian Tour event.
- This week is Jazz’s 35th tournament played in 2019. The only other player in the top-100 on the OWGR that has player who has played as many events is Sungjae Im of Korea.
- By winning the last event of the Asian Tour season Jazz will go to 40th on the OWGR, one week after cracking the world top-50 for the first time in his career.
- By virtue of his phenomenal play this year Jazz will be exempt for three out of the four Majors in 2020, the Masters Tournament, PGA Championship and the Open. He has also qualified for two of the World Golf Championships- WGC-Mexico and WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational.
- With his tied-second finish this week Suradit Yongcharoenchai will finish fourth on the Asian Tour Order of Merit with US$277,460 in earnings, easily surpassing his previous best mark of 34th in 2018.
- In today’s bogey free round of nine-under-par 62 that included one eagle and seven birdies, Suradit hit 16/18 greens-in-regulation and only had 27 putts.
- His breakthrough Asian Tour victory came at this year’s Mercuries Taiwan Master in October, winning the title by one stroke ahead of a trio of players.
- The Thai has also had two other top-10 finishes this season, with a tied-eighth at the Yeangder TPC and a tied-10th at the Classic Golf and Country International Championship.
- With his tied-second finish this week, Phachara Khongwatmai ended the year with a total of six top-10s this season
- This summer he won the GolfSixes Cascais in Portugal, a two-player team event on the European Tour, together with compatriot, and this week’s host, Thongchai Jaidee.
- Thomas Detry missed out on winning his first event on a major Tour again. He finished tied-fourth at the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open just one stroke out of the playoff a fortnight ago.
- The Belgian also had a high finish in November when he came in tied-third at the Nedbank Golf Challenge hosted by Gary Player, one of European Tour’s Rolex Series events.
