Chinese Taipei’s Chan Shih-chang clinched his sixth Asian Development Tour (ADT) title at the Taifong Open on Sunday to equal the record of most ADT wins.
The 32-year-old Chan carded a bogey-free four-under-par 68 to triumph by two shots, with a winning total of 13-under-par 275 at the Taifong Golf Course. He and close friend Pavit Tangkamolprasert of Thailand, now hold the joint record for the most number of wins on the ADT.
Thailand’s Chinnarat Phadungsil and Han Lee of the United States settled for second place after signing for matching 66s at the US$160,000 ADT event.
Wearing his lucky polka-dot shirt, Chan won the Taifong Open for the third time in his career. In 2010, he won the event on the local circuit and was victorious again in 2014 when the tournament was sanctioned by the ADT.
He took advantage of an overnight two-shot lead and was rewarded for his safe approach in the final round where he opted to use his three-wood off the tees on most holes.
“I played it safe today because I missed quite a number of fairways this week. So, I took out my three-wood on a lot of holes just to keep it in in play. I was nervous but the home crowds really encouraged me to push forward so I am very grateful for their support,” said Chan.
He was delighted to match the winning record set by Pavit earlier this year when the latter won the Betagro Championship in Thailand in May.
“Pavit is one of my closest friends on Tour and I am happy to be holding the record of the ADT with him. It has been a great week and to bring the trophy back home is very special,” added Chan, who is also a two-time Asian Tour winner.
With the victory, Chan took home a prize purse of US$28,000 and received six Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points.
“It feels so good to be back in the winner’s circle. I have been struggling with my swing all year and I decided to just take things simple and go back to my old swing this week. I was pretty nervous all week to be honest but I just focused on keeping the momentum going each round,” said Chan.
Despite missing out on his maiden ADT victory, Chinnarat took pride in his best finish on the ADT this season at the richest event on the ADT schedule.
“Today was a good day, I hit a lot of good shots into the greens and I felt comfortable around the greens. I looked at the leaderboard after the seventh hole and I was four-under-par. The only mistake I made was on hole eight when I three-putted after a made a bad chip. But I’m still very happy with how I finished. My game is coming back and this marks my best finish this season on the ADT,” said Chinnarat, who finished tied-10th at the Betagro Championship in May.
Japan’s Kazuki Higa traded five birdies against two bogeys to card a 69 in the final round and take tied-fourth with local veteran Lin Wen-tang who posted a 68. Higa climbed up to second-place on the ADT Order of Merit just US$2,446 behind Thailand’s Nitithorn Thippong who still holds the top spot with a current haul of US$23,603.
The leading seven players on the ADT Order of Merit at the end of the season will earn playing rights on the premier Asian Tour for the 2019 season.
Leading fourth round scores:
75 – CHAN Shih-chang (TPE) 71 65 71 68
277 – Han LEE (USA) 70 69 72 66, Chinnarat PHADUNGSIL (THA) 72 70 69 66
278 – LIN Wen-tang (TPE) 70 68 72 68, Kazuki HIGA (JPN) 69 72 68 69
279 – Masaru TAKAHASHI (JPN) 71 70 71 67, LU Wei-chih (TPE) 71 69 71 68
281 – Panuwat MUENLEK (THA) 71 71 70 69, TSAI Chi-huang (TPE) 66 70 74 71
282 – Benjamin LEIN (USA) 74 69 67 72, Pavit TANGKAMOLPRASERT (THA) 67 72 72 71, WANG Wei-lun (TPE) 68 71 70 73
283 – David SHEN (TPE) 72 73 67 71, Natipong SRITHONG (THA) 69 72 68 74
For full results and OOM click here
