Winner report
Hung ends 21-year wait with 72nd-hole birdie at the Taiwan Masters
Chinese Taipei's Hung Chien-yao bogeyed the 16th and 17th, then holed a 20-footer on the last to win the Mercuries Taiwan Masters by one from Wade Ormsby for his first Asian Tour title.
Hung Chien-yao, 34, first played the Mercuries Taiwan Masters as an amateur in 2005. Twenty-one years later, with his wife Nikki on the bag, he won it. He closed with a 1-under 71 at Taiwan Golf & Country Club to finish 8 under par (280), one shot ahead of Australia’s Wade Ormsby, for his first Asian Tour title.
Hung began the day one ahead and birdied the first. By the turn he was two clear of Ormsby, who was playing five groups ahead and chasing a sixth Asian Tour win. A bogey from Hung at the 10th and an Ormsby birdie at the 13th cut the gap to one. Hung birdied the 14th to go two clear again, and Ormsby’s 67, the joint-lowest round of the day, left him in the clubhouse on 7 under.
Hung missed from around 10 feet at the 16th and watched a six-footer slide past at the 17th, which left him needing a birdie on the last to avoid a play-off. His uphill 20-footer was dead centre. “I think my whole body is still shaking,” he said afterwards, according to the Asian Tour.
Hung has been an Asian Tour member since 2012, and before Sunday his record included a runner-up finish at last year’s Taiwan Glass Taifong Open, four thirds and four fourths. Golf Monthly reports it was his first title in 181 starts.
He won the Ambassador ADT Open in July, his third Asian Development Tour title, and finished third at the Yeangder TPC last week. The first prize of US$240,000 lifts him to sixth on the Asian Tour Order of Merit, and he heads straight to Japan for next week’s Asian Games.
Gavin Green, who won this event in 2017, shared third. Thailand’s Pavit Tangkamolprasert, last week’s winner, tied seventh and stays top of the Order of Merit with four events left. This season the Order of Merit winner also gets a DP World Tour card.
One player missing from the weekend was American MJ Maguire, disqualified after the first round over a lost-ball ruling on the ninth hole (our explainer).
The Asian Tour now takes a two-week break before the SJM Macao Open (15–18 October) and the Link Hong Kong Open (22–25 October).
Final leaderboard (top 5)
| Pos | Player | To par | Final round |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hung Chien-yao (TPE) | -8 | 71 |
| 2 | Wade Ormsby (AUS) | -7 | 67 |
| T3 | Wang Jeung-hun (KOR) | -5 | 71 |
| T3 | Jazz Janewattananond (THA) | -5 | 71 |
| T3 | Suteepat Prateeptienchai (THA) | -5 | 72 |
| T3 | Gavin Green (MAS) | -5 | 73 |
Sources
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