Asian Tour: Hong Kong’s Taichi Kho among elite field, as world’s best get ready for season opener in Saudi Arabia

Top players from across the region to face likes of Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau at next week’s PIF Saudi International

Kho qualified for the event by finishing second at Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship last November

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Big-hitting Bryson DeChambeau is in the field for next week’s PIF Saudi International. Photo: AFP

Published: 5:30pm, 28 Jan 2022

The Asian Tour’s top golfers take on some of the world’s best at next week’s PIF Saudi International, and Hong Kong’s Taichi Kho will be there right alongside them.

Kho qualified for the opening event of the Tour’s 2022 season by finishing second at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship in Dubai last November.

His reward is to face the likes of Dustin Johnson – the defending champion and 2019 winner – Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson and Ian Poulter among a host of big names at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club.

Taichi Kho takes a selfie with Keita Nakajima after the Japanese golfer beat him in a playoff to win the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship in Dubai. Photograph by AAC

The strongest field the Asian Tour has ever put together for an event, features regional stars of the game with hundreds of Tour titles between them.

Among them will be Jooyhung Kim, the 19-year-old rising star from Korea, who secured the 2020-21 Asian Tour Order of Merit title last weekend, after finishing joint second in the SMBC Singapore Open. He leads an impressive line-up that includes the likes of Thailand pair Thongchai Jaidee and Jazz Janewattananond, and Australian Scott Hend.

Running from February 3 to 6, the tournament will also be one of the most lucrative in the Tour’s history with a purse of US$5 million.

“It’s incredibly exciting to enter a new era for the tournament in partnership with the Asian Tour by seeing the elite players from the region take on the world here in Saudi Arabia,” said Majed Al-Sorour, deputy chairman and CEO of Golf Saudi and the Saudi Golf Federation. “There are some brilliant players who have qualified alongside some rising stars of the game across Asia that will have an amazing opportunity and platform next week to showcase their talent, in the strongest field in our history.”