Asian Tour: Hong Kong golfer Taichi Kho’s journey continues, next stop the PIF Saudi International
- Kho will compete alongside the likes of Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Sergio Garcia
- The Hongkonger, who is in his last year of college at Notre Dame, is looking to learn everything he can from week ahead
Taichi Kho returns to the Arabian Peninsular this week for the next stop on his golfing journey at the star-studded PIF Saudi International, believing he can compete against the best in the world.
Kho, who is in his final year of college at Notre Dame, will be in a field alongside the likes of Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood in the Asian Tour’s first event of the 2022 season.
And the world’s best, drawn by the promise of a US$5 million prize fund, will present a far stiffer challenge than on Kho’s previous visit to the region in November, when he was second at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship in Dubai.
Still, the Hongkonger remains undaunted by the week ahead and is looking to just enjoy the experience at the Royal Greens Golf & Country Club in King Abdullah Economic City.
“I’m going against some of the best professionals in the world and I’m not ignoring who’s playing,” Kho said. “I saw the field list, I saw the invites, and they’re all obviously very good players. But at the end of the day I’m still going through my own journey and I want to experience it myself and go through the journey by myself, and just kind of learn from every week.
“So, I might have a great week, I might not, but either way, I know, I’m going to come out of Saudi a better player and that’s the main goal. I think in terms of the confidence and belief for me to compete against those guys, I definitely have it.”
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That confidence in his game has grown through his time as a member of The Fighting Irish, and was further boosted by his showing three months ago when he took Japan’s Keita Nakajima, the world’s top amateur, to a playoff at Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club.
“I feel like that was exactly what I needed to see for myself because it wasn’t just that week, it’s been a body of work over the past year,” Kho said. “I really feel like the player I am now is accumulation of what I’ve done over the past six months, and it really just shows the work that I put in.
“So, I guess that motivates me to continue to get better every day because nothing’s a given from here, especially now. So I definitely do want to enjoy the work while I’m at it, but also keep motivating, keep pushing myself to get better every day.”
Kho is no stranger to Tour golf, having played in the Hong Kong Open twice and while he is “not entirely sure” what his future holds after he finishes college, he said the good days in terms of his performance on the course “are getting a lot better”.
“I feel like I’m just in a much more focused and efficient mindset right now than I’ve ever been,” he said. “And I know Dubai was the reinforcement of that. I needed to tell myself, I’m working on these right things.”
As well as some of the best players in the world, the PIF Saudi International features the top golfers from across Asia.
Jooyhung Kim, the 19-year-old rising star from South Korea, who secured the 2020-21 Asian Tour Order of Merit title last the weekend, after finishing joint second in the SMBC Singapore Open, will lead an impressive line-up which includes former champions Thongchai Jaidee from Thailand, his compatriot Jazz Janewattananond, Shubhankar Sharma from India, Malaysia’s Gavin Green and Australian Scott Hend.
The tournament runs from February 3-6 and features the strongest field ever assembled for an Asian Tour event.
