Golfers have the drives to succeed

As Asia's top amateur golfers prepare to tee the ball up for the start of the 15th Asian Games golf tournament at Doha Golf Club on Friday 8 December, Korea will be among the early favourites to repeat their achievements as medallists in both the men's and women's individual and team events.

At Busan 2002, Korea took five of the 12 available medals in the golf competition, although they won gold in only the women's team event through Kim Jo-Mi, Park Won-Mi and Yim Sung-Ah.

Nineteen year-old Kang Sung Hoon leads Korea's men's team and is a strong medal contender for the individual event, while team mates Ryu So Yeon and Choi He Yong are more than capable of topping the leaderboard in the women's individual event.

Kang recently shot eight under par in the individual event after four rounds at the 2006 Eisenhower Trophy Men's World Amateur Championships in South Africa to finish sixth overall.

His consistent performance on the fairways and greens in South Africa also helped propel Korea to fifth place in the team event - the best of the Asian entries in a competition featuring 72 men's teams.

Predicting the result in Korea's favour is not a foregone conclusion, however, as Japan, Chinese Taipei and the Philippines have traditionally been strong challengers for the men's golf medals, while Malaysia and India also have some promising competitors this time around.

Japan's top male golfers set to appear at Doha Golf Club include Yuki Ito and Yuta Ikeda, while Pan Cheng Tsung and Chan Shih Chang, both from Chinese Taipei, are also likely to have a big say in proceedings.

Forty two year-old Japanese veteran Naoyuki Tamura will also be teeing off with his younger compatriots on Friday morning and said, "My team mates could be my sons because they are so much younger. I don't give them much golf advice, but I try to help them stay relaxed and in good golf shape. I want them to remain relaxed and to enjoy golf. To relax them, I tell a lot of jokes - I joke about everything but golf.

"I want to help Japan win the gold medal in the team event. I want my score to count two or three times over the four rounds. I also want to make the younger golfers more aggressive. My score will hopefully be 73 or 74 every day, so they can afford to be more aggressive."

Leading the Philippines' challenge will be Jay Bayron, who finished four over par with a score of 292 at the Eisenhower Trophy. Elsewhere, Malaysian golfers, notably Ben Leong and Sivachandhran Supramaniam, could also provide some strong competition.

Leong, the first Malaysian player to qualify for the 2005 US Amateur Open Championships, was one of the golfers who tied with Pan in South Africa.

Supramaniam is currently ranked No 1 in the Malaysian Golf Association's (MGA) amateur ranking. He was the 2005 Malaysian Amateur Close Champion, but was disqualified in the second round of the 2006 Maybank Malaysian Open after missing his tee time by 10 minutes after shooting an impressive five under par 67 in the first round.

Other golfers to watch out for are India's duo Gaganjeet Bhullar, who tied with Bayron at the Eisenhower Trophy, and Anirban Lahiri Lahiri. While Sri Lanka also remains confident of taking home a medal from the team competition.

"We are a definite prospect," said Amrit De Soysa. "The Sri Lankan team just missed out on a medal at the last Asian Games. I wasn't on the team, but at that time we had only three golfers so we were at a disadvantage. This is one of the best teams we've had attend the Asian Games so we have a really good chance to do something."

In the team competition it is likely that Korea will be pushed hard by Japan, whose team consists of Ito, Ikeda, Naoyuki Tamura and Yuki Usami. Malaysia, represented by Supramaniam, Leong, Sukree Othman Rashid and Edmund Jonathan Au will also be in the hunt for medals come Monday afternoon.

Teams consist of three or four players in the men's competition, with the total of the three lowest scores counting in each round. The total of the team scores for the four rounds constitutes the team score for the competition. Women's teams can consist of two or three players, with the lowest two scores counting.

In the women's competition, Chinese Taipei's Yu Pei Lin and Tseng Ya Ni, along with Japan's Mika Miyazato, are likely to provide the toughest competition for Korea's Ryu and Choi.

The women's team event is also likely to be a battle among Korea, Japan and Chinese Taipei, although the Philippines could stand an outside chance if their players perform well over the four days of competition.

There are 69 men and 24 women from 18 NOCs participating in the tournament. If a member of the same NOC places first, second and third in the individual golf competition, medals will not be awarded to all three. The fourth-placed golfer will instead be awarded the bronze.

By 15th Asian Games, Doha 2006