Poom

Saksansin

The young Thai announced his presence in 2015 with a win on the Asian Development Tour and won three more times in Asia, over the next three years. Highlights on the PGA TOUR include a T44 at the 2017-18 CIMB Classic where he was T2 after round one, and a T24 at the 2017-18 WGC-HSBC Champions. More recently, he’s hit a wall, playing just 14 events since the start of 2020, posting just three top 30s over that stretch. The 28-year-old is still young enough and talented enough that he could catch another heater and rise up the ranks again. However, without any real status on the big tours, he is far off the fantasy radar for the foreseeable future.

The Thai punched his ticket by winning the BNI Indonesian Masters in December for his third Asian Tour title. Saksansin did well in his only other WGC when T24 at the HSBC Champions although that was held in Asia which likely helped him. He also showed he could handle a big stage in last year’s EurAsia Cup when taking down Henrik Stenson in the fourballs and beating Paul Casey in the singles. The no-cut format will help the World No.249 but any sleeper appeal is limited by recent results which show five missed cuts in his last seven starts across various tour in Asia.

Saksansin was T9 in his home Thailand Masters two weeks ago while in December he won the Asian Tour’s Indonesian Masters. The World No. 161 was perhaps a little under the radar this week due to missed cuts at Saujana in both 2017 and 2018 although he did shoot a Friday 68 in the latter. The Thai golfer matched that today thanks to a pair of birdie bursts. Saksansin made pars on his first six holes before dropping to +1 with his only bogey of the day at 16. He rebounded in style with a trio of red circles at 17, 18 and 1 and moved into the top ten with two late gains at 8 and 9.

The 24-year-old, a two-time winner on the Asian Tour in the last 18 months, began his tour of the course in the capital city with a birdie-4 at the tenth hole before adding eight becalmed pars to the turn. If his lap at that stage appeared solid it was about to become spectacular as he reeled off four birdies on the bounce at 1, 2, 3 and 4. The second of those came with a fast right-to-left putt from 20'0" he quickly stood up on, but which dropped in the middle of the hole. He completed his work for the day with a pair of par breakers at 8 and 9 to join Keegan Bradley and Xander Schauffele, one behind early pacesetter Cameron Smith. He opened with a 76 on his last start, on his home tour, for T101 before improving all week to T21. This week is already quite a contrast, as will the pressure be from now on in.

The World No. 169 from Thailand has found some fine form in Asia in recent months and even though he couldn’t add another good finish in New Zealand last week he still posted bookend 66s at the ISPS HANDA NZ Open. Saksansin finished T22 at DLF G&CC 12 months ago and, on his arrival in India after a 19-hour flight from New Zealand, he said: “The golf course here has an engaging layout but is also very challenging. I’m sure not sure what will happen here. I don’t hit long, so I cannot play aggressively. Perhaps, this approach will help me score well.” There’s a feeling that accuracy could count for plenty this week and Saksansin’s straight hitting and recent form make him worthy of inspection.

The young Thai checks in at the 6th spot in the Asian Tour order of merit. The top 10 in that regard received an entry into the field this week. He’s achieved his spot on the money list through a high volume of play, teeing it up in 14 events. The most notable finish was a wire-to-wire victory at the TAKE Solutions Masters that netted him $54,000 USD. The most notable non-win comes in the form of a runner-up at the Asia-Pacific Open Diamond Cup, which actually earned him nearly twice as much as his victory ($125,805). The 24-year-old has top 30s in six of his last nine international starts, most recently. That kind of form makes him an interesting sleeper for gamers this week, but he’s still a bit of a wildcard.

The 24-year-old from Thailand scribbled four birdies against a lone bogey in his afternoon lap of Fanling and sits just two off leader SSP Chawrasia. Don’t be surprised to see his name up there given where this tournament is taking place. Saksansin won on the Asian PGA Tour in August, was runner-up in Japan at the end of September and even made a mark in elite fields when opening with a 65 at the PGA Tour’s CIMB Classic in Malaysia and then taking T24 in the WGC-HSBC Champions in China. Clearly carrying some confidence, he fired birdies today at 3, 7, 11 and 13 to threaten the lead but dropped back to T4 after a bogey at 16 and two closing pars.

That’s four swings behind leader SSP Chawrasia of India. Saksansin struggled early today, making four pars and a bogey in his first five holes but rallied with red circles at 16, 2 and 3. He continued his climb by taking just three swishes at No. 7 for the second day running before he gave one back at the 9th. The 24-year-old from Thailand has shown plenty of recent potential with T16 at the Omega European Masters and T24 at the WGC-HSBC Champions in his last two European Tour starts and this is now a big chance to post his first top 10 at this level and, who knows, maybe much more. He’s ranked 206th in the world, 25 spots higher than leader Chawrasia, so don’t be surprised by his efforts so far.