Davidoff Tour resumes after break

BY Bruce Young | Asian Tour | 2002 Mercuries Taiwan Masters | Wrap | 25 Aug 2002

After a three month break the Davidoff Asian PGA Tour got under way in Taiwan this past week with the Mercuries Masters event at the Tamsui Course near Taipei.

33 year old Taiwanese Tsai Chi-Huang not only won his first event on the Davidoff Tour, but he won it in style blitzing a field, which had been anxiously awaiting the restart of the tour, by five shots.

Tsai, who had won the Taiwan Open and other non-tour events earlier in his career, took control of the tournament on Saturday after trailing his fellow countryman Lu Wen teh into round three. He quickly opened up a lead over Lu in round three and gave no one else a look in from that point. This was Tsai’s first event of the year on the Davidoff Tour and heralds the start of what may well be a lucrative run for him over the next three months.

After the break since May the tour now heads into a series of events over the next three months culminating in the BMW Asian Open in late November and the Hong Kong Open and the Malaysian Masters to finish off the season in December.

The Australians were headed by West Australian Kim Felton who was tenth, Queenslander Brad Kennedy 21st, David Gleeson 23rd, Michael Wright 42nd and David Brandson 49th.

The win already has Tsai in eighth place on the money list with $US71,000. Leading Australian is Brad Kennedy in 13th with $US53,670 with Kim Felton 18th and $US47,000. Indian Arjun Atwal still has a commanding lead on the money list with $US173,000.

The next event is the Shinhan Donghae Open in Seoul this week worth $US400,000 where Charlie Wi will be defending.

Final Round – Top Scores
1 -14 Tsai Chi-Huang 68 69 68 69
2 -9 Lu Wen-Teh 69 65 73 72
T3 -8 Hsieh Yu-Shu 70 66 72 72
T3 -8 Hong Chia-Yuh 71 68 69 72
T3 -8 Hsieh Chin-Sheng 70 69 69 72
T3 -8 Aaron Meeks 65 70 75 70
T7 -7 Lin Keng-Chi 76 68 69 68
T7 -7 Lee Lien-Fu 71 75 67 68
9 -6 Thammanoon Sriroj 70 69 72 71
T10 -5 Kevin Na 72 71 70 70
T10 -5 Boonchu Ruangkit 69 72 72 70
T10 -5 Danny Zarate 73 72 68 70
T10 -5 Kim Felton 68 72 69 74
T10 -5 Hsu Mong-Nan 72 74 71 66

Final Round – Australasian Scores
T10 -5 Kim Felton 68 72 69 74
T18 -3 Unho Park 72 75 71 67
T21 -2 Brad Kennedy 70 72 72 72
T23 -1 David Gleeson 70 69 75 73
T42 6 Michael Wright 71 74 76 73
T49 8 David Bransdon 72 74 77 73

• Cut * Kenny Druce 77 74
  Michael Curtain 77 75
  Terry Pilkadaris 75 78
  Troy Kennedy 79 83