Shahriffuddin Ariffin doesn’t want to look back nor get ahead of himself. Neither feat will be easy to accomplish as he takes a four-stroke lead to bed ahead of the final round of the $75,000 Laguna Phuket Cup on Tuesday.

The 22-year-old Malaysian is on the cusp of a second Asian Development Tour (ADT) title after backing up an opening 64 with a sensational eight-under 62 at Laguna Golf Phuket on Monday to wrestle control of the Beautiful Thailand Swing (BTS) event on 14-under par.

Thitipan Pachuayprakong is Ariffin’s closest pursuer heading into the final round at -10 following rounds of 64-66 while another Thai, Sarun Sirithon, is joined by Sweden’s Calle Strandberg and Japanese-American Ryoto Furuya a stroke further adrift.

Given the low scoring and preferred lies in play at Laguna Golf Phuket, it will take something extraordinary for the player further down the leaderboard to contend, especially if Ariffin can continue his current hot streak.

He finished T-13 at the Laguna Phuket Challenge last week with rounds of 68-68-66 and has continued his impressive downward trend in the opening 36-holes. Indeed, he has been trending nicely ever since a T-8 placing at the Asian Tour’s SMBC Singapore Open in January and won the PGM Maybank Championship at Saujana Golf & Country Club in late March. Ariffin won the Malaysian PGA Tour event by three strokes, notably with a confidence-inducing final round of six-under 66.

It all adds up to the belief that he can get the job down on Tuesday and add to his maiden ADT win at the 2018 PGM Labuan Championship in Malaysia. Then again, Ariffin is trying desperately not to think about that.

“I’m very excited but right now I don’t want to think about it [winning],” he said.

“My game plan tomorrow is just to keep hitting fairways and greens and just go from there. That’s all.”

Ariffin found his driver a little un-cooperative in the opening round but had no such issues on Monday. He got off a sizzling start with a birdie from two feet on the 1st and another from seven feet on the second but left the highlight till the 9th when he hit driver-3 wood to a foot and holed the tiddler for an eagle three to turn in 29 strokes. In all his card was blemish-free with six birdies to go with the pretty eagle.

“I’m hitting it very well, lots of fairways, a lot of greens and my putting is also working…there were only a few holes I was confusing the line, that’s all.”

Jesse Yap shot an eight-under 62 and will be looking to make a move on Tuesday. Photos by Jason Butler / bgbimages.com

Jesse Yap soared up the leaderboard to a share of sixth on eight under after matching Ariffin’s 62 with a round that featured eight birdies – including five on the trot from the 10th. The Singaporean, who lead after the first round of the Laguna Phuket Challenge and eventually finished T-13 alongside Ariffin, is a combined 16-under for five circuits of Laguna Phuket and will hope to put some clubhouse heat on the leaders with another low round.

Laguna Phuket Challenge winner Tom Sloman is at five-under after a Monday 66 and enjoys a three-stroke lead over fellow Englishman David Langley in the MENA Tour’s race within the wider BTS race.

The eventual winner of the MENA Tour’s 2020+ Journey to Jordan Order of Merit race, which will be completed at the end of the BTS following two further events at Blue Canyon Country Club, will earn an invite to one of the Asian Tour’s new $1.5 million+ International Series events later this year.

England’s David Hauge, currently third on the J2J OOM missed the cut which was made at two-under.

Harrison Gilbert would’ve loved to play collegiate golf in the United States but never quite reached the amateur heights that warrant scholarships to the ultimate finishing school for aspiring professionals.

Still, once he graduated Monash University in hometown Melbourne with an International Business degree, the intention was always to pursue the touring life. Then a pandemic went and put everything and just about everyone on ice.

Suddenly the pathway to the pro game, let alone the big time, was blocked at every turn and the 23-year-old Victorian had to hurry up and wait to pursue his dream.

The frustration finally ended when the Asian Development Tour (ADT) and Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Tour announced in mid-April the Beautiful Thailand Swing. The four, quickfire 54-hole events in Phuket promised a combined US$300,000 in prizemoney and OWGR status and, even more importantly for Gilbert, an opening.

“I had the Beautiful Thailand Swing come up and essentially I couldn’t say no,” said Gilbert who paid his dues to become a MENA Tour member.

“I really didn’t have a better opportunity coming down the line so I thought, why not, let’s just make the turn to become professional and try and make a name for myself out in a worldwide tour.”

Fast-forward to Phuket and the kid from fabled Royal Melbourne is learning the nuisances, many of them uncontrollable, of his new job on the fly.

“It was a whirlwind experience I’ll put it that way,” Gilbert says of his pro debut in the $75,000 Laguna Phuket Challenge which ended last Thursday.

“I was so nervous, my first tee shot, I was shaking, I was just really trying to get it down there in play.”

It turns out Gilbert, teeing off on the 9th, managed only two shots before a weather warning at Laguna Golf Phuket sent the players scurrying for the clubhouse. When he got back out an hour later he made it no further than the 10th green before an additional 2½ hour delay.

“So I’d played two holes in just about 3½ hours of golf so that was not exactly nerve settling.”

Gilbert was one of those forced to come back the next morning to complete his first round and he admits his eventual five-over 75 was the result of inexperience. “I just wasn’t focused.”

With just a 25 minute turnaround till his second round, Gilbert gave himself a silent talking too and “it’s safe to say I turned it on.”

He eagled the 9th to turn in 29 strokes and got it to eight-under for his round only for a flier lie on the 17th to send a 9-iron hurtling 206 metres into trouble before a plugged lie in a greenside bunker on the last meant he had to settle for a 65. It all added up to a maiden missed cut…by one, agonising stroke.

“I’ve learnt that amateur golf and professional golf is just a stark contrast,” Gilbert said. “It’s one thing to say you’re going to be a professional but it is another thing to come out here and try and shoot good scores.

“You just have to be patient, like you just have to execute good shots under pressure. You might think that a six-footer in round one doesn’t mean too much but if it’s the difference between making the cut or missing the cut… every shot does count at the end of the day.

“That’s my main takeaway and honestly just to enjoy myself because those first two rounds, I was just so stressed thinking about making the cut.”

After a topsy-turvy and ultimately even-par 70, Gilbert looks a good chance to make his first pro-cut in the Laguna Phuket Cup which started in typically tropical conditions back at Laguna Golf Phuket on Sunday.

He got it to two-under with a birdie on 14 but was left unsettled when his Thai caddy collapsed on the next hole, a suspected bite “of some kind” leaving the Aussie rookie to push his trundler for the three final, steamy holes. A bogey-double bogey reverse followed although he regained some momentum with a long birdie putt on the 18th.

“From these first four tournaments, the Beautiful Thailand Swing, firstly I just want to get the crux of professional golf,” he said afterwards.

“Obviously the dream is to be that No.1 golfer in the world. I really would like to make a real name for myself because obviously everyone has Tiger as the idol. I’m not going to stand here and say I’m going to be Tiger Woods that is for sure but I really just want to make a name for myself and really prove to myself that I am as good as I think I am.”

For now, it’s tentative Thailand steps toward the ultimate goal that is the Asian Tour.

“Obviously coming from Australia it’s a long way to get over to Europe and the PGA Tour so the Asian Tour is definitely a dream and would love to be there.

“I’ve got a few friends on that tour, Will Heffernan and Travis Smyth, and really it’s just taking it one step at a time. It would be a dream to get there but I’ve got to achieve those short term objectives to try and reach those long term goals.”

Patience. Resilience. Executing under pressure. Turning stress into fun. Gilbert is learning is craft in Phuket and for that opportunity, he’ll be forever grateful to the MENA and ADT.

Shahriffuddin Ariffin, Thitipan Pachuayprakong and Ryoto Furuya helped restore a little Asian Development Tour (ADT) pride as the Beautiful Thailand Swing (BTS) marched quickstep into the second of its four quickfire events on Sunday.

Rounds of 64, six-under, earned the Malaysian, the Thai and Japanese-American a share of the first-round lead at the $75,000 Laguna Phuket Cup – just two days after Englishman Tom Sloman ensured the co-sanctioning MENA Tour first blood at the BTS by capturing the Laguna Phuket Challenge.

The trio lead by a stroke from Chilean MENA Tour member Matias Calderon and Fijian ADT player Sam Lee who was released from quarantine isolation after a positive COVID-19 test on the morning of the BTS opener just five days ago.

Lee somehow managed to finish T-21st at the Laguna Phuket Challenge despite not knowing the course and going in with zero practice. He’s clearly benefited from his four circuits of Laguna Golf Phuket since with his opening 65 on Sunday including eight birdies – just like his practice round yesterday.

For all that, Lee and co. are still all looking up to Ariffin, Pachuayprakong and Furuya who finished T-13, T-51 and T-17 respectively in the Laguna Phuket Challenge.

Ariffin is searching for his second ADT win after capturing the 2018 PGM Labuan Championship in Malaysia. He’s trending nicely too, having secured a share of 8th on the main Asian Tour at January’s SMBC Singapore Open and is a combined 14-under par for his four rounds at Laguna Golf Phuket this week. It hasn’t all been stress-free with wayward driving forcing the 22-year-old to conjure some wedge magic on Sunday.

“My start was not so good, par, birdie and a bogey but then I tried to focus more on playing on the fairway and my putting… and I also chipped in twice, on hole one and hole four,” Ariffin said.

Thithiphun is remembered for playing in the final group alongside eventual champion Lee Westwood at the 2011 Indonesian Masters. The Thai eventually finished third and went on to capture his maiden Asian Tour title, the 2016 Bashundhara Bangladesh Open, before qualifying for the U.S. Open later that year where he missed the cut after carding rounds of 73-79 at Oakmont.

Furuya is a product of the University of South Florida. After 10 years in the U.S., he’s now living back in Japan closer to his family and the lure of a full Asian Tour card.

“It could have been a lot better,” Furuya said of his seven-under total in the Laguna Phuket Challenge. “I had a couple of double bogeys out there and I made sure I wasn’t going to make the same mistakes today.”

Like Ariffin, Furuya now has four rounds in the 60s to his name and the confidence collegiate golf grants most graduates.

“You’re playing against the best of the best in Division 1 in America and you are playing a lot of great courses so it definitely prepares you. If you do well in division 1, you should do well in professional golf.”

Sloman, meanwhile, signed for a one-under 69, the same score as his nearest rival in the MENA Tour’s ‘2020+ Journey to Jordan’ OOM standings, England’s David Langley.

Poosit Supupramai kicked on from his runner-up finish to Sloman at the Laguna Phuket Challenge with an opening 68.

With a fourth placing at the Western Australian PGA Championship sealed three days before he landed in Phuket, Sam Lee justifiably felt like he was “coming in hot” for the Beautiful Thailand Swing.

It turns out the 31-year-old Fijian’s form wasn’t the only thing warm, an obligatory temperature check and PCR test on arrival at Phuket International confirming a positive COVID-19 result.

With that, Lee’s prep for the Asian Development Tour-MENA Tour co-sanctioned swing was turned on its head. Instead of hitting Laguna Golf Phuket for some reconnaissance practice, he was confined to barracks at the official BTS hotel for two days and then moved to a dedicated quarantine facility.

His mandatory isolation period mercifully ended on the morning of the first event but Lee couldn’t help feeling more than a little jinxed as the Laguna Phuket Challenge got underway in tropical conditions.

“I was last off at 1:10pm and I show up to the tee and the horn blew for a weather delay,” says Lee picking up his own hard-luck story.

“So yeah I had to come back into the clubhouse and probably wait, I don’t know, maybe an hour or so. Then we teed off and I played two holes and the horn blew again so I came back into the clubhouse.”

The second delay was longer and meant Lee was one of those who had to come back early the next day to finish his first round. Somehow through all the disruption, he managed to compile rounds of 67-67-71 for a five-under total and a share of 21st place. You could say it was US$753.21, minus tax, hard-earned.

Thankfully, the two days since have proved incident-free, unless you count some lovely ball striking and putting in a confidence-boosting practice round for the second leg of the BTS, the Laguna Phuket Cup, starting on Sunday.

“I mean I’ve played three rounds and we’re playing the same course for the Laguna Phuket Cup, and I’ve played a practice round today so I know the course a little better. So if I can just make a few more putts I should do pretty well.”

Lee is definitely a player to watch on the ADT this season as evidenced by his performance at Kalgoorlie Golf Course in the PGA Tour of Australasia event en route to Phuket.

“As of now I only have status on the Asian Development Tour so I’m just trying to make my way up from this tour to the Asian Tour,” Lee said.

“I might do a few other Q-Schools later in the year and see where I go but if you finish in the top seven on the Asian Development Tour you get a card on the Asian Tour and yeah I mean, the Asian Tour has grown quite a bit in the last few years, so yeah, it’s going to be good alright.”

With Dodge Kemmer making the cut at The 41st GS Caltex Maekyung at Namseoul Country Club in Korea on the main Asian Tour, the American’s slender lead in the ADT Order of Merit race looks sure to evaporate at the Laguna Phuket Cup.

Thailand’s Chanat Sakulpolphaisan and Poosit Supupramai, in second and third place on the OOM, will resume their battle for pole position after finishing T-9 and solo second respectively at the Laguna Phuket Challenge.

Laguna Phuket Challenge champion Tom Sloman, meanwhile, has his own OOM challenge to ward off. The 25-year-old Englishman ascended to the summit of the MENA Tour’s ‘2020+ Journey to Jordan’ standings with his five-stroke victory in the BTS opener but has good mates David Langley and David Hauge nipping at his heels, just $961 and $2134 adrift respectively.

So are you feeling any pressure Tom, especially with a start in one of the Asian Tour’s new $1.5million+ International Series on the line for the Journey to Jordan champion set to be crowned at the conclusion of the BTS?

“There’s no pressure now at all, the most pressure was probably this week and I’ve done that now, so yeah, no pressure at all,” the former Walker Cupper said after claiming his first win in an OWGR event.

“I think I’ll take a couple of days off now, I’m not going to hit a ball and yeah, we’ll just tee it up on Sunday and see how it goes again.

Tom Sloman has never doubted he has the game to compete at the highest level despite a frustrating start to his pro career but concedes he didn’t foresee a potential Asian Tour detour on his pathway to fame and fortune.

That all changed on Thursday when the 25-year-old Englishman ran away with the $75,000 Laguna Phuket Challenge, the first of four Beautiful Thailand Swing (BTS) events jointly co-sanctioned by the Asian Development Tour (ADT) and MENA Tour.

The US$13,125 cheque the former Walker Cupper posed with in photographs afterwards mightn’t force his accountant to undertake a sudden audit but the opportunities now on the horizon courtesy of his five-stroke victory over Thai Poosit Supupramai are potentially life-changing.

Sloman has leapt from seventh to the summit of the MENA Tour’s 2020+ Journey to Jordan Order of Merit (OOM) standings as a result of his brilliant 54-holes at Laguna Golf Phuket and will earn himself an invite to one of the Asian Tour’s new $1.5 million+ International Series events if he can stay there come the completion of the BTS. Two further ADT starts and a free pass to the final stage of Asian Tour Q-School for next season – the reward for those finishing in the top-10 of the final standings – almost now seem a lock too.

It means the big-hitting lad from Taunton might soon be rethinking his loosely plotted path to golf’s loftiest stages.

“My goal is obviously to get to the PGA Tour one day and hopefully win majors. Obviously, that’s a fairly big goal but I believe I have the game for it if all goes well,” said Sloman, who signed for rounds of 63-65-63 and a thoroughly impressive 19-under winning total.

Reminded of the opportunities now presented via the MENA Tour’s strategic partnership with the Asian Tour, Sloman recalibrated his thoughts.

“It’s a massive opportunity now isn’t it with the Saudi’s coming in obviously,” he said.

“Winning the MENA Tour would be fantastic. To get into final stage of Q-School, to get into two more of these [ADT events after the BTS] and the Asian Tour International Series…it’s all about trying to get as many opportunities in there as possible and seeing what happens at the end of year.

“Anything to do with the Asian Tour is obviously pretty big now.”

So too was Sloman’s win, courtesy of 54 holes where he barely faulted.

He started Thursday’s final round with a two-stroke advantage over Supupramai and Jesper Alm and all but played all of his pursers out of contention with five birdies in his first seven holes. There were further gains on 11 and 12 but it was a lengthy par putt that did a near-complete 360 around the cup on the 13th that sealed the deal. There was a minor irritation when he made a three-putt par on the next but another clutch par save when he found tree trouble off the tee on the 17th slammed the door on Supupramai after Alm’s challenge faulted early, a 78 tumbling the Swede down to a share of 39th.

It is Solman’s fourth professional win but comes after his career was stalled by COVID and then by a series of frustrating near-misses on the EuroPro Tour last season. His consolation for seven top-10 finishes, including a pair of joint runner-up placings, was being crowned Rookie-of-the-Year to follow in the footsteps of Tyrrell Hatton, Jordan Smith and Jack Senior.

“Obviously delighted with my first OWGR win…it’s been a long time coming,” Sloman said.

“I bottled a few tournaments at the back end of last year so to get over the line is a big relief. The close calls on the EuroPro really helped me today, obviously coming down the stretch, I knew what I had to do, didn’t get as nervous I guess. Still nervous all day but I was able to handle it and to get over the line now will hopefully help me in the future as well.”

Supupramai closed with a 66 to finish -14 and is up to third in the Asian Tour OOM courtesy of his runner-up cheque for $8625.

Dodge Kemmer holds onto pole position despite being in Seoul for the latest Asian Tour event after Chanat Sakulpolphaisan was unable to take advantage of the American’s absence. The Thai eventually settled for a share of 9th at Laguna Golf Phuket.

China’s Chen Guxin was the big final day mover, a closing 63 propelling him to a share of third with Thailand’s Pawin Ingkhapradit on -11 – eight strokes adrift of Sloman. Ireland’s Robin Dawson also matched Thursday’s low of 63 to sneak inside the top-10.

After a two day break for rest and range work, the BTS will resume with the Laguna Phuket Cup on Sunday. Like all of the BTS events, it is a 54-hole event with a $75,000 purse.

If you took Tom Sloman’s recent results purely at face value you might wonder how he’s powered his way to a two-stroke lead heading into the final round of the Beautiful Thailand Swing’s Laguna Phuket Open.

Two missed cuts and a best of T-58 in four Challenge Tour starts in South Africa in February-March didn’t exactly put Sloman’s name up in lights heading into the Asian Development Tour’s four-event Phuket swing co-sanctioned by the MENA Tour.

But scratch just beneath the surface of those performances and you discover one of England’s most promising young professionals. The 25-year-old former Walker Cupper enlightened any doubters of his talent by returning to Laguna Golf Phuket early on Wednesday to complete his delayed opening round at the $75,000 event in an impressive 63 strokes, seven under. He then headed straight back out to record a 65, easing to -12 for the championship, two ahead of Swede Jesper Alm (66-64) and Thai Poosit Supupramai (67-63).

With another five players, including overnight leader Jesse Yap (Singapore) within five shots of the lead and Par-70 layout giving up plenty of birdies, there are no guarantees Sloman will kick on to his fourth professional victory on Thursday and first in an OWGR event.

But given his pedigree and early play, don’t be surprised if the current world No. 866 does emerge victorious to seal the US$13,125 champion’s cheque and the biggest win of his career.

Sloman, all 6ft and 105kg of him, enjoyed a stellar amateur career, capped by being leading points scorer for Great Britain and Ireland in their 15½-10½ Walker Cup loss to the U.S. at Royal Liverpool in 2019.

The big-hitting Chelsea FC fan will also call on all the lessons learned on last season’s EuroPro Tour where he rattled off seven top-10s, including a pair of joint runner-up finishes, to be crowned Rookie-of-the-Year and follow in the footsteps of Tyrrell Hatton, Jordan Smith and Jack Senior among others.

He’s certainly no stranger to MENA Tour followers with four top-20 finishes in 2020 highlighted by a share second place at the Journey to Jordan 1 Championship that Feb. and a tie for third in the last event before the Middle East and North Africa tour was shut down by the pandemic, the Journey to Jordan 2 Championship which concluded on March 4, 2020.

Sloman is currently 7th in the MENA Tour’s now “2020+ Journey to Jordan” OOM race with $14,183. He secured his start in Phuket via his performances in the Middle East in early 2020 and victory on Thursday has the potential to propel him to the top of the standings, although compatriot David Langley will likely have a say in that.

Langley will begin the final round in a share of 17th place on -5 and with a start in one of the Asian Tour’s new $1.5 million+ International Series events on the line for the overall MENA Tour champion after the Beautiful Thailand Swing, knows every shot and every greenback will count in the final wash-up.

The top-10 in the MENA Tour OOM standings after the four, quickfire Phuket events will also earn two additional ADT starts and exemptions to the 2023 Asian Tour Q-School, adding further intrigue down the leaderboard.

Chanat Sakulpolphaisan, meanwhile, is making a decent fist of being the top-ranked player in the ADT OOM standings with current leader, American Dodge Kemmer, in Korea for the Asian Tour’s 41st GS Caltex Maekyung Open starting at Nam Seoul Country Club on Thursday.

Sakulpolphaisan has signed for a pair of 67s to be one of eight players tied for 9th at -6.

The 36-hole cut fell at -1. Among those to miss by a stroke where two-time MENA Tour winner Luke Joy (England) and Aussie Harrison Gilbert who marked his professional debut with rounds of 75-65. With two eagles, Gilbert was sensationally eight under through 16 holes in his second round only to stumble into the clubhouse with a bogey-double bogey finish, a frustration he’ll no doubt look to turn into a hard lesson learned at the Laguna Phuket Cup starting on Sunday.

Wednesday’s low scoring also included hole-in-one from Sydney Chung. Sadly the American wasn’t able to capitalise on his perfect 9-iron from 147 yards on the 2nd, signing for a 70 to go with his opening 75 to miss the cut by six strokes.

Sloman, Supupramai and Alm set out in the final group at 8.59am Phuket time on Thursday.

Jesse Yap missed the cut the last time he teed it up at Laguna Golf Phuket but it’s clear from his sizzling start to the Beautiful Thailand Swing that there is no lingering mental scar tissue five months removed from that eye-opening Asian Tour experience.

The 29-year-old Singapore professional bolted out of the blocks with a sensational six-under 64 Tuesday to snare the clubhouse lead at the $75,000 Laguna Phuket Challenge – albeit with an overnight asterisk after two rain delays meant 57 of the 143 starters were unable to complete their opening rounds.

Englishman Jack Floydd, the leading MENA Tour performer, shares second place a stroke back with Sarun Sirithon and Varanyu Rattanaphiboonkij on five-under, while another Thai duo, Suteepat Prateeptienchai and Pawin Ingkhapradit, carded 66s to be in the early mix.

After Tuesday’s big wet, the leaderboard will likely look different by the time those who ran out of light return early on Wednesday to complete their first rounds at the first of four BTS events to be jointly co-sanctioned by the Asian Development Tour (ADT) and MENA Tours over the next three weeks.

However it all shakes out early tomorrow, Yap has made a thoroughly impressive start in pursuit of a maiden ADT win– even taking into account his own, slightly more frustrating asterisk as he went off the boil late with a 62 or even better begging.

With four birdies in his opening five holes and two more before the turn, Yap negotiated Laguna’s outward nine in just 28 strokes. There were further gains on the 10th and 11th and by the time he walked onto the 14th tee, Yap was eight-under and had marked down no worse than a four on his scorecard. Sadly a bogey on 14 and another to close reversed some of the early momentum, not that Yap was grizzling.

After taking a teaching job at Sentosa Golf Club a year ago to help lessen the fiscal challenges most mini-tour pros faced during the pandemic, the fourth year pro is just happy to be back playing tournament golf. He’s clearly learned from his rounds of 71-72 for a three-over total at the Asian Tour’s Laguna Phuket Championship in December where he missed the cut by two shots.

“Yeah, started off very hot,” Yap said to also top the understatement of the day leaderboard.

“Hit a few shots in close and took the chances I had. I made three really good mid-range putts on 7, 10 and 11 to go 8-under through 11…a little disappointed with the finish dropping shots on 14 and 18 but still felt like I hit it solid coming in.

“I made a couple of mistakes there and the putts that dropped earlier in the round didn’t drop at the end. Overall very pleased and happy to start this stretch of events off on a positive note.”

While the focus was on Yap, Chanat Sakulpolphaisan’s opening 67 was noteworthy, the Thai making another solid start after finishing runner-up to American Dodge Kemmer at the ADT’s season-opening Gurugram Challenge in India early last month. Kemmer has a start in the Asian Tour’s 41st GS Caltex Maekyung Open at Nam Seoul Country Club from Thursday and it seems Sakulpolphaisan doesn’t need a second invitation to ascend to the summit of the ADT Order of Merit.

He is one of seven players at three-under, Dubai-based Englishman Joshua Grenville-Wood among them. Grenville-Wood, who opened up on his battle with ADHD on the eve of the tournament, cancelled out two early birdies with a pair of bogeys in a topsy-turvy outward nine but came home with three birdies and a smile on his face. The hard work he has been putting in with UK-based short game specialist Alex Buckner is clearly paying off.

“I would’ve shot four over four weeks ago if it wasn’t for the short game work I’ve put in,” said the 24-year-old who sports the ADHD Foundation on his bag in support of the UK’s leading neurodiversity charity.

“I missed six greens and just scrambled so well. Had two really silly bogeys from being lazy but other that, it was pretty solid once I got going on the back nine. I definitely won’t hit it that bad tomorrow so should be good.”

A two-time Olympic downhill skier turned mini-tour professional, the brother of a popular Asian Tour winner and a graduate of the U.S. collegiate system with world-famous team-mates who has, until now, had nowhere to pursue his own life-changing dreams.

Even before a ball has even been struck, the three-week, four-event Beautiful Thailand Swing (BTS) has fulfilled its overarching remit of providing players from every corner of the globe with a launchpad to the game’s loftiest stages.

Among the veritable melting pot of nationalities set to be represented in the $75,000, 54-hole events ­– two apiece at Laguna Golf Phuket and Blue Canyon Country Club and all four co-sanctioned by the Asian Development and MENA Tours – is Andorra.

Kevin Esteve played age-group tennis for the Principality but made his name in alpine skiing, finishing as high as sixth in the Combined Downhill at the 2011 Garmisch World Championship. Now 32, he twice marched into Olympic cauldrons for Andorra, first at Vancouver 2010 and again at Sochi 2014 where he achieved his Olympic best result of 32nd in the downhill. Sadly he also crashed in Sochi, suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury so severe that it lead to three surgeries and eventually to Esteve turning his back on the slippery slopes.

Undeterred, Esteve made the most of his recovery by finishing his sports degree in France and throwing himself into golf. He’s now ranked 1387th in the OWGR, is 42nd in the MENA Tour’s Journey to Jordan Order of Merit race entering the BTS and is coming off an encouraging T-6 finish at the ECCO Tour Spanish Masters in early March, an OWGR-sanctioned Nordic Golf League event.

Ferdinand Müeller, looking to get his career underway in Thailand.

Galven Green is another looking forward to the first stop of the BTS, the Laguna Phuket Challenge starting on Tuesday, after accepting a special invite from the MENA Tour. The Malaysian is the younger brother of three-time ADT winner, Rio 2016 Olympian and 2017 Mercuries Taiwan Masters (Asian Tour) champion Gavin Green. New Mexico University alumni Galven, the world No. 1724, is no stranger to Asian Tour followers nor the courses set to host the BTS, having teed it up in the Blue Canyon Phuket Challenge (MC) and the Laguna Phuket Championship (T-71) before Christmas and then the SMBC Singapore Open (MC) in early January.

There was due to be another familiar surname on the Laguna Phuket Challenge start sheet this week but sadly Devin Suri, the brother of DP World Tour winner Julian, is an 11th-hour scratching due to a wrist injury. It is not known if he will be fit enough to tee it up in the Laguna Phuket Cup (May 8-10), Blue Canyon Classic (May 13-15) or the Blue Canyon Open (May 18-20).

There will be great interest in the Phuket performances of Ferdinand Müeller who counts current world No. 6 Viktor Hovland and fellow PGA Tour winner Matthew Wolff among his former teammates at Oklahoma State University (OSU). The 24-year-old German was also a Cowboys’ team-mate of Dubai-based Indian Rayhan Thomas, the first amateur to win on the MENA Tour. The pandemic hasn’t been kind to Müeller, who was named a first-team Academic All-Big 12 selection in his senior year (2019-20) at OSU, as he has been unable to tee it up in a Q-School. Thankfully, the strategic alliance struck between the Asian and Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Tours has proved a foothold on the OWGR ladder.

The BTS serves as the first events for the MENA Tour since it was shut down by COVID-19 on March 4, 2020 – 790 long and challenging days. The ADT resumed action in late March/early April at the Tata Steel-backed Gurugram Challenge in India. Dodge Kemmer won at Classic Golf & Country Club in Gurgaon but the American won’t be at the Laguna Phuket Challenge at least as he as secured a start in the Asian Tour’s 41st GS Caltex Maekyung Open at Namseoul Country Club from May 5-8.

The next five players in the ADT Order of Merit – Chanat Sakulpolphaisan (Thailand), Andreas Gronkvist (Sweden), Arnond Vongvanij (Thailand), Yuvraj Sandhu (India) and Joshua Grenville-Wood (England) – are confirmed starters.

Grenville-Wood is a duel ADT/MENA Tour member and determined to secure a top-seven finish in the season-long ADT OOM race and in turn snare a 2023 Asian Tour card.

The 24-year-old Dubai-based Englishman will also participate in the MENA Tour battle within the wider BTS battle. The top-10 players in the final 2020+ Journey to Jordan standings, which will be decided after the BTS-deciding Blue Canyon Open, will earn invites to the next two ADT events and critically, exemption to the final stage of Asian Tour Q-School. The Journey to Jordan champion will also receive an invite to one of the Asian Tour’s new $1.5 million-plus International Series events in 2022. The three leading players in that race, Englishman David Langley and David Hague and Scotsman Ryan Lumsden, are all competing in Phuket.

At last count, players from 29 countries were listed to tee it up in the 144-strong Laguna Phuket Challenge field made up of 55 ADT, 55 MENA Tour, 20 All Thailand Golf Tour (ATGT) and 14 invites split evenly between the ADT and MENA Tours.

Luke Joy makes no attempt to sugar-coat the past 2½ years as a mini-tour journeyman with almost nowhere to play, zero certainly surrounding his professional future and challenges at home that conspired to put even the pandemic curveballs into context.

“It’s been brutal… brutal,” said the Abu Dhabi-based Englishman before acknowledging bride Lauren’s role as a career saviour and emotional rock despite her own personal battles. “If I didn’t have my wife, I’m lucky enough she’s a successful PT [personal trainer]…”

Joy’s answer tapered off as he internalised not only his soul mate’s lop-sided contribution to fiscal survival in the UAE during the pandemic but also the emotional rollercoaster ride the couple have been on since just before the outbreak of COVID-19.

In mid-2019 Lauren was diagnosed with stage four endometriosis, a painful inflammatory condition where tissue similar to the lining of the uterus is found outside the uterus. Thankfully successful surgery in London that December, just as COVID-19 was sweeping the globe, has translated into the joyful pitter patter of tiny feet. The arrival of wee Hugo, the couple’s first child, on February 1 this year means Dad has even more reason to hit the range and revive his stalled career.

It makes another resurrection, that of the MENA Tour’s 2020 Journey to Journey season, timely. Better still, the circuit’s freshly-minted strategic alliance with the Asian Tour means the Beautiful Thailand Swing starting next Tuesday will be co-sanctioned by the Asian Development Tour (ADT).

As such, the four quickfire 54-hole events in Phuket not only promise a combined US$300,000 in prizemoney and enhanced OWGR status, but more importantly a view to a bright new future on a circuit suddenly emboldened by a $300 million investment from Saudi-backed LIV Golf Investments.

As a two-time winner on tour, Joy is the most decorated of the 55 MENA Tour players set to tee it up at Laguna Golf Phuket and Blue Canyon Country Club over the next three weeks. At 17th in the current Order of Merit, he’s also well-positioned to capitalise on some, if not all, of the early sweeteners provided by what is set to become a full merger between the two development tours.

They include an invite to one of the Asian Tour’s new $1.5 million-plus International Series events for the eventual MENA Tour champion, the promise of two further ADT starts and, also for the top-10 in the now rebranded ‘2020+ Journey to Jordan’ standings, exemption to the final stage of Asian Tour Q-School for 2023.

It’s no wonder Joy, who won the MENA Tour’s Dubai Creek Open and GOLF CITIZEN Abu Dhabi Open in a breakout 2014, is a big fan of the new opportunity laden pathway.
“I mean don’t get me wrong, when we had starts for the European Tour stuff which I was very lucky enough to play my way into, the Dubai Desert Classic, the Dutch Open and Morocco and places like that, it was great,” said the 33-year-old.

“But it was like one week, you had one week to perform and you basically finished top-10 at that event or it was done. It’s like a shootout and where those guys [on the DP World Tour] are playing week-in, week-out, 13 on the stimp [metre] greens, firm, rock hard and stuff like that, that is quite a tough adjustment to get straight away.

“Whereas now, if it was in the same situation, the same Order of Merit positions, then next year you’d have an Asian Tour card so I think the progression now is far more valuable.”

That was crystalised for Joy during a stint caddieing for Saudi amateur Saud Al Sharif during the Asian Tour’s $5 million, season-opening PIF Saudi International presented by SoftBank Investment Advisors in early February.

“I also saw the limitations that the European Tour potentially has to offer someone like me at the moment with them cancelling Q-school for the last three years. Basically, I didn’t quite understand the logic of how the Ladies European Tour can have a Q-School and yet the European Tour can’t.

“I wouldn’t say that I’m visualising wins on the European Tour, or visualising wins on the Asian Tour because I’m not there yet. I need to put a plan in place to see where I can get to. Down the road, I see myself on a bigger tour but just at the moment, I’m just going to have to wait and see what avenues open up to see which side of Abu Dhabi airport I’m going take, either to Asia or Europe.”

All signs point to Asia currently and for that, Joy is grateful. Anything has to be better than the last two-plus years with his career on ice.

“Obviously we don’t really have the benefit of, for instance, getting furloughed or anything like that. You’re a performance-based, commission-based entity where when you play well, you win money and you can put food on the table. If you don’t have any opportunity to do that, it’s quite a tough one to sort of salvage.

After two years with his career on ice, Luke Joy is keen to get back in action with the Beautiful Thailand Swing. Picture by Johan Rynners / Sunshine Tour.

“I’m lucky enough to have a university degree [via Drake University in Iowa which boasts Zach Johnson among their alumni] to fall back on but some of the guys who don’t have an educational background, and they still want to stay in golf industry, I really don’t know what you could have done. I mean, I started up a granola company just to keep things ticking over in my apartment, you know just random stuff that you would never even have thought of. You had to be adaptable, think outside the box. But yeah, it’s been pretty crap.”

Joy will enter the Beautiful Thailand Swing around his current ranking of 1724th in the OWGR but has been as low as 486th. That was in early January 2018, just a couple of months removed from his best finish on the ADT, second place by a shot to Thai Poosit Supupramal at the Defence Raya Golf Championship in Pakistan.

“That was pretty much my best year to date,” Joy recalls of an actual 14-month stint from September 2016 to the ADT event in Pakistan where he finished runner-up no less than seven times in OWGR events.

“I mean, getting into the top 500 in the world playing on a mini-tour was pretty impressive because the ranking points were basically nothing.”

Given Joy’s last professional outing was his title defence of the King Hamad Trophy at Royal Bahrain last November, it’s little surprise he’s approaching the Beautiful Thailand Swing with nothing more than cautious optimism. Sleepless nights and nappy changing duties for a now three-month-old take precedence over-sharpening ones wedge game after all.

That said, Joy isn’t jetting his way to Phuket to “make up the numbers.” He’s won on the MENA, EuroPro and JAMEGA Tours and sees no reason why he can’t add a trophy engraved with the ADT to his mantelpiece.

“I’ve always tried to make sure that I’m not a donator to the prize fund, you go in there to do a job and some weeks it will go well…” said Joy before another of his patented pauses for thought.

“You know, I want to get to the elusive 10th professional victory. I think I’ve been going for nine years and I think last year was actually the only year I haven’t won as a pro which was quite frustrating, not to get that buzz of winning. So I want to try and get to at least 10 and then get to 20 as quick as possible after that.”

The Asian Development Tour (ADT) and MENA Tour will break new ground in May, when they jointly-sanction four events in Phuket – which will be called the “Beautiful Thailand Swing”.

Four three-day events will take place over a span of three weeks at Laguna Golf Phuket and Blue Canyon Country Club, signifying the start of an emerging new relationship between the ADT and MENA Tours.

The ADT restarted last week with the Gurugram Challenge in India, where victory went to American Dodge Kemmer, following a two-year break caused by the pandemic.

“This marks another significant moment in our return,” said Cho Minn Thant, CEO & Commissioner, Asian Tour.

“The Asian Development Tour is an important part of our architecture and while it was encouraging to see it restart in India last week it is really exciting for it now to be building momentum and heading to Phuket for four events with our friends from the MENA Tour.”

Last year the Asian Tour entered a strategic partnership with the MENA Tour which will help facilitate the formation of one of the most comprehensive and innovative development tours in the modern game.

The “Beautiful Thailand Swing” represents the start of this process.

“We are truly excited to return to action next month. It’s been a long wait, but I am glad the hard work has paid off. Our members will have much to play for as the ‘Beautiful Thailand Swing’ will conclude our 2020+ season and the winner for the 2020+ ‘Journey to Jordan’ will be crowned,” said David Spencer, Commissioner, MENA Tour.

For the “Beautiful Swing Thailand” there will be a two-day gap between each event and players from both Tours will compete for a prize purse of US$75,000 in each tournament. The standard 36-hole cut of 50 professionals and ties applies.

PHUKET-THAILAND- A general view of Hole No 11 on Friday December 3, 2021 during round two of the Asian Tour’s Laguna Phuket Championship 2021 at Laguna Golf Phuket, with a prize fund of US$ 1 Million. Picture by Paul Lakatos/Asian Tour.

The four-event swing will kick off at Laguna Golf Phuket with the Laguna Phuket Challenge starting on May 3, followed by the Laguna Phuket Cup which commences on May 8.

Players will then proceed to play the Blue Canyon Classic which will be held at the Lakes course of the Blue Canyon Country Club from May 13. The swing then concludes with the Blue Canyon Open which will be played at the Canyon course from May 18.

Blue Canyon Country Club and Laguna Golf Phuket successfully hosted the Asian Tour Phuket Series, which marked the Asian Tour’s return to action last November. Laguna Golf Phuket is also an Asian Tour Destination which has hosted multiple ADT events in the past.

The top 10 available professional players from the final 2020+ ‘Journey to Jordan’ will be invited to play in the next two ADT events following the Thailand swing. The winner of the 2020+ ‘Journey to Jordan’ will also receive an invitation to play in one of the upcoming Asian Tour ‘International Series’ tournaments in 2022.

The leading seven players on the final ADT Order of Merit at the end of the season will earn playing rights on the Asian Tour in 2023.

The Boonchu Ruangkit Championship, won by Thailand’s Pavit Tangkamolprasert in January 2020, will be counted as the opening event of the ADT new season.

Ends.