Asian Tour: Ogletree romps to International Series England triumph, as Hong Kong’s Kho finds form for top 10 finish
- American Andy Ogletree cards final round 64 to finish seven shots ahead of England’s Ian Poulter
- Taichi Kho fires a 66 to finish in a tie for 10th, his best performance since winning the World City Championship in March
Andy Ogletree romped to his second International Series victory of the season in England on Sunday, as Taichi Kho rediscovered the form that helped him to become the first Hongkonger to win on the Asian Tour.
Ogletree began the day with a one-shot lead over South African Neil Schietekat, and overcame a bogey at the par-4 first to card a seven-under-par 64 to finish on 16 under overall.
While the American’s challengers came and went, most notably Schietekat whose 76 dropped him well down the list at three under, Ian Poulter matched the 64 to race up the leaderboard to finish second on nine under.
Abraham Ancer, Matt Jones and David Puig all began the day with hopes of challenging the leader, but could only manage even-par rounds of 71 to finish on seven under.
“If you’re leading and shoot the lowest round of the day no one can catch you, and I’ve always said that,” Ogletree said. “That’s my mentality, I don’t want to win by one, I want to, you know, crush people and that’s what I try to do. I’m super competitive and every day is a new tournament for me.”
Having already won in Qatar this year, Ogletree’s victory cements his place at the top of the International Series’ order of merit. Winning that would earn him a spot in LIV Golf next season.
After his hiccup at the first, the 25-year-old rattled off five birdies over the next seven holes, and the only other blemish on his day was a bogey a nine.
Well ahead by that point, birdies followed at 12 and 14 before an eagle at the par-5 16th put the exclamation point on a truly dominant performance.
“I don’t think I could hit it much better than I did this week,” Ogletree said. “My game is in a really good spot against a world class field, super honoured to play the way I did.”
Kho, meanwhile, put in his best performance since winning the World City Championship in March, carding a 66 to finish on five under for the tournament and in a tie for ninth with the Philippines’ Miguel Tabuena.
Having battled a cold putter for much of the week, the Hongkonger let several chances for birdie slip by on the front nine, and reached the turn at one-under.
While a birdie at 12 got him another shot, it was a long putt to save par on the short 13th, where he missed the green off the tee that proved decisive.
“It was one of those momentum putts where if you make birdie and then bogey, it kind of caps you,” Kho said.
“It was kind of a slow putting day to start again, but I feel like a good job of not pushing it, and then towards the back it was almost hard to miss, and it was great to be in that zone again.”
There were back-to-back birdies on 15 and 16, the second coming after a chip for eagle lipped out, and his final flourish was a birdie at the par-3 18th after his tee shot found the middle of the green.
Kho has struggled with his putting to such an extent that coach Jonathan Wallet has been making him do a drill he uses for his young daughters, where he has them visualise a two-metre squared area behind the hole that they are trying to hit.
“Coming down the stretch I had a lot of 15-20 footers, which I hadn’t really made all week,” Kho said. “In essence, I feel like I’ve been making the putting so difficult for myself, so on the back nine just tried to really focus on that image and ended up pulling it off.”
