Jazz

Janewattananond

The 25-year-old kicked off swimmingly with a bogey-free 64 (7 birdies) but exchanged one, 2-putt birdie from 32'0" at the drivable par-4 sixth with a failed sand for bogey-5 at 11 in R2. On 11 (of 14) fairways and 11 greens in regulation, he gained 0.898 strokes off-the-tee but lost strokes on approach (-0.213), around (-0.137), and on-the-green (-1.384). The 33-seed from Thailand, who posted a -0.836 SG: Total in R2, stated afterwards, "...I’m actually not too upset with my score because I knew I was struggling.” See link for more of his post-round comments below.

The 25-year-old, making his Olympics debut, arrived off a T46 at The 149th Open two weeks ago on even-par 280 (70-69-74-74). He hasn’t had a worldwide top 15 since T11 at the British Masters 11 weeks and seven starts ago, while his lone top 10 of the calendar year is a playoff loss at the Kenya Savannah Classic back in March, both of those on the European circuit. Asked afterwards: “Playing golf with a different mindset. You’re playing, you’re not playing for yourself you’re playing for the country, you’re playing for the medals, you’re just going for it, you’re just playing with all your heart. It’s different.” The 33-seed rang up seven birdies on 16 greens in regulation, highlighted by four straight around-the-turn at holes 8, 9, 10 and 11, and posted 2.497 SG: Approach, 2.272 SG: Putting, and 5.606 SG: Total.

This is the 25-year-old’s second appearance after a missed cut by 10 last year on 13-over 157 (80-77), in that field via the Top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking (No. 40). Overall, it’s his 19th career TOUR event with two prior top 25s, a T14 at the 2019 PGA Championship (Bethpage Black) in his TOUR debut, and a T14 at last season’s WGC-HSBC in his WGC debut. The World No. 114 opened with 75 and a day-low 65 (8 birdies, 1 bogey), the 65 a career TOUR low in 56 rounds, eclipsing a pair of previous-best 6-under 66s. On seven (of 14) fairways and nine greens in regulation, he lost strokes off-the-tee (-0.220) and around-the-green (-1.631), but gained 1.792 on approach. The Thai golfer squared two, bookend bogey-5s at holes 1 (missed par-saver from 4'1") and 18, offset by three birdies at 3, 7 and 16, and an ace at the 212-yard par-3 14th (6-iron). He posted 1.444 putts per GIR and 1.920 SG: Putting with 24 total putts, converting two scoring chances from between 11 and 27 feet, and also saving par two times from between 10 and 23 feet.

The young Thai got his scoring started with a 13-footer for birdie at the par-5 second hole. He saved the rest of his birdies for the closing stretch (13, 15, 16, and 18) to offset a pair of blemishes at the 11th and 12th. His round included 10-of-14 fairways hit and 12 greens landed in regulation. Both figures right around field average today. Janewattananond arrived without any prior experience at the Masters but he was T2 thru 54 holes at the 2019 PGA Championship. That is his only cut made in five major championship appearances.

The 24-year-old has piled up seven worldwide wins since the start of 2017 but he’s still searching for his first top 10 in a PGA TOUR event. The closest call came at the 2019 PGA Championship when he was T2 heading into the final round. He stumbled home with a 7-over 77 to finish T14 that week which remains his best finish on the big stage. More recently, he’s sandwiched a T3 at the Irish Open between four missed cuts (two in majors and two on the European Tour). If you invest in weekly formats then you are banking on worldwide performance and pedigree winning out, not past results in PGA TOUR events.

Ranked No. 39 in the world, Janewattananond has spent the past several weeks practicing in central Florida and got recruited to a WFGT one-day event by former PGA Tour winner Daniel Chopra. Janewattananond has played each of the last three weekly events, this time firing a 7-under 65 at Laurel Oak Country Club in Sarasota that got him into a three-man playoff that was eventually won by Michael Visacki. One year after contending at the PGA Championship at Bethpage, the 24-year-old made $900 for his T-2 finish among the 66-man field. He’ll soon be heading back to his usual level of competition, as Janewattananond is expected to participate in the PGA Tour’s return at the Charles Schwab Challenge in three weeks.

Not only is it the Thai’s tournament debut, it’s his first appearance in Florida so we don’t know how he’ll handle the conditions. Asian Tour watchers will be well aware of the 24-year-old’s huge talent and a run of big finishes have helped him rise to 40th in the OWGR (for reference, that’s one ahead of Sergio Garcia). Jazz had back-to-back wins in Indonesia and Thailand in December and was third in January’s Singapore Open but he hasn’t been able to transfer that form to the European or PGA TOURs so far in 2020. He missed the cut in Dubai, was T56 in the Saudi International and T53 in the WGC-Mexico Championship. However, let’s not forget his T14 in the WGC-HSBC Champions back in November, a performance which shows he’s capable of shining among the elite.

A first start at Chapultepec GC for the Thai golfer who gave plenty of notifications in 2019 that he is ready to burst onto the world stage. Late in the campaign he was T14 in his WGC debut at the HSBC Champions, but before that he was second in the PGA Championship after 54 holes (again he was T14). Beyond that he excelled on the Japan and Asia Tours, notching top tens aplenty before he closed the year with two wins, going 62-65 and 60-65 to rubber stamp them. He opened 2020 with T4-T3, again on his home tour, but went MC-T56 in Dubai and Saudi Arabia on the European Tour.

The Thai 24-year-old owns just three top tens in 48 European Tour starts, but that figure looks sure to change very soon – if not this week (and the chances of that are obviously good) then before very long. Why the confidence? He closed the 2019 Asian Tour season with a pair of wins going 62-65 and 60-65 at the weekend. He then opened 2020 with T4 in the Hong Kong Open and T3 in the Singapore Open. A pair of 76s to miss the cut in the Dubai Desert Classic was therefore a bit of a surprise. On Friday at Royal Greens G&CC he opened on the back nine and ticked the 11th, 12th and 17th, the latter two for a second time this week. The front nine started with an error at the third, but then he atoned with red numbers at the fifth and seventh. At the ninth he found thick rough from the tee, hacked out, came up short of the green, putted from distance and saved his par from 8’0".