Choo Tze Huang

Choo Tze Huang, who was sensational during his amateur days when he was studying in the United States, has lived in Japan since July to gain more experience. PHOTO: COURTESY OF CHOO TZE HUANG

Business Times – Singapore – Thu 18 Nov 2021

SEVERAL of Singapore's male professional golfers have endured a rough ride of late.

Choo Tze Huang, who was sensational during his amateur days when he was studying in the United States, has lived in Japan since July to gain more experience, but he has since performed below expectations.

The 33-year-old has not been able to raise his game abroad since turning professional back in 2012, and he has missed the cuts in all his 7 tournaments in Japan so far. Four other leading professionals, Koh Dengshan, Gregory Foo, Abdul Hadi and Jesse Yap, who played well at the recent FTAG Singapore Pro Series, journeyed to Florida in the US, and the quartet has failed to get past the first stage of the Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying Series.

All of them will be back to Singapore soon at various points over the next 2 months, wise to the fact that their game needs to be elevated at least a couple of notches if they are to succeed beyond our shores.

No doubt, they are richer for the experience from their exploits which came about mainly because they were idle with no tournaments in the region due to the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions.

But now that things are gradually opening up with the Asian Tour set to resume this month in Thailand with backing from Saudi Arabian sponsors, Singapore's professional players should consider relocating to Thailand in 2022 and playing in the competitive Thai Singha Tour.

That Tour ensures about 24 events with prize money ranging from S$100,000 to S$160,000 each. What the golfers need is hardened and true competition, which is sorely missing in Singapore events.

The irony is that they shoot good scores when they play among themselves, but things are different when they compete at bigger tournaments overseas.

With the next SMBC Singapore Open in January 2022 looming large, there are 6 to 8 spots for local golfers up for grabs, and this tournament is a good opportunity for them to figure out why they seem to underperform on the bigger stages.

It's puzzling why they have produced sub-par scores and birdie blitzes at the Singapore Pro Series at Serapong, and over-par returns on the same course at the Singapore Open.

With longtime former Singapore No 1 golfer Mardan Mamat having switched to the senior ranks and Nicklaus Chiam - the only local to get past the first stage of the Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying Series as an amateur last month - turning pro, Singapore can assemble a reasonably strong team for the regional events.

"Go Thai" should be the clarion call for our professionals. In fact, Koh, Mardan and Yap can size up the situation when they play in the Asian Tour events in Phuket later this month.

Thailand, which has produced three US PGA players in Thongchai Jaidee, Jazz Janewattananond and Kiradech Aphibarnrat, has at least a dozen golfers on the European and Japan Tours and a sizeable 50 golfers for the Asian Tour. Crucially, all of them graduated from the challenging Singha Tour.

The "Go Thai" campaign should also get a boost from John Catlin, the American golfer who plays on the European and Asian Tours, and also made the cut in two Majors - the US PGA Championships and the British Open - this year.

The 30-year-old, who turned professional in 2013 and has won four Asian Tour events, was also named the Tour's Player of the Year in 2018.

This came about while he spent over 3 years living in the Thai seaside resort of Hua Hin and mostly plying his trade on the Thai Tour.

He has also won three European Tour events, is No 124 on the world rankings and has career earnings of just more than 1 million euros (S$1.5 million) to date.