Asia Pacific Open joins Asia and Japan
BY Bruce Young | Asian Tour | 2012 Asia-Pacific Panasonic Open | Preview | 19 Sep 2012
The Japan Tour joins forces with the Asian Tour this week for the Asia Pacific Panasonic Open at the Higashi Hirono Golf Club in Hyogo Prefecture, the third staging of the event between the two Tours.
This will be the first occasion this particular venue has been used for this event although the Higashi Hirono Golf Club has been used as a tournament venue on the Japan Golf Tour previously.
The event includes the leading players on this year’s Japan Golf Tour money list, Hiroyuki Fujita, Brendan Jones, Kyoung Hoon Lee, Hyung Sung Kim, Yoshinori Fujimoto and Toru Tanighuchi.
At number 66 in the world Fujita is the leading world ranked player in the field followed by Kyung Tae Kim, Marcus Fraser and Ryo Ishikawa.
The top six players on the Asian Tour’s Order of Merit list will feature in the Asia-Pacific Panasonic Open including top-ranked Marcus Fraser of Australia, who leads with US$448,710, followed by Jbe Kruger who trails in second place by over US$8,000.
Thaworn, the only player with multiple Asian Tour victories this season, is third on U$318,389 while Qualifying School winner David Lipsky of the United States (US$$230,858) and Prom Meesawat of Thailand (US$181,919) are in fourth and sixth place respectively.
With the inclusion of many of the Australasians playing the Asian Tour, the representation from those two countries for an event in Japan is strong.
Fraser and Jones are joined by fellow professionals, Brad Kennedy, Kurt Barnes, Scott Hend, Andrew Dodt, David Gleeson, Scott Barr, Kieran Pratt, Darren Beck, Rick Kulacz, Steve Conran, Ryan Fox, Marcus Both and Paul Spargo.
Invited amateurs from Australia or New Zealand are Cameron Smith, Jake Higginbottom, Matthew Perry and Vaughn McCall.
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