Tournament
Created in 2019 and positioned in the European Tour calendar (from now on DP World Tour) at the beginning of February, the PIF Saudi International (February 3-6, 2022) switched this year to theAsian Tour. A consequence of the persistent threats of creation in the near future (we are talking about 2023) of one Super Golf League (Where Premier Golf League) supported by Saudi Arabia and a rapprochement at the same time of the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour. Jay Monahan and Keith Pelley, bosses of the two most powerful entities in professional golf, had thus threatened the players who would be tempted to join this pharaonic project (18 tournaments at $10 million each involving 48 hand-picked players) to be excluded from their circuit. Before granting them “conditional release” to compete in this new-look Saudi International, in particular the members of the PGA Tour who will have to take part in theAT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am which takes place the same week in California.
The new 2022 Asian Tour season will start here at the @SaudiIntlGolf ⛳ #SaudiIntlGolf #whereitsAT pic.twitter.com/hcsDjgbFjq
— Asian Tour (@asiantourgolf) January 30, 2022
The course
Designed by the British Dave Sampson, the Royal Greens Golf & Country Club is a par 72 of 7,201 yards. It is located in the economic city of King Abdullah, near Jeddah, on the shores of the Red Sea. As such, it is the first ultramodern site dedicated to golf in Saudi Arabia, which also hosts a stage of the Ladies European Tour (LET). The wind regularly comes into play on this seaside course, even if the winners of the three previous editions won with rather low scores, oscillating between -12 and -19.
The endowment
Previously set at 3.5 million euros (for the three editions of the European Tour), the endowment is now $5 million (4 472 671 euros). This significant increase, we owe it to the PIF (public investment fund) of Saudi Arabia, which is also the majority shareholder of LIV Golf Investments whose CEO is none other than the former world No. 1, the Australian Greg Norman. The latter, through his company, has committed to investing more than 300 million dollars over ten years in ten new Asian Tour tournaments from 2022.
Looking forward to seeing you again @DJohnsonPGA #SaudiIntlGolf #SeeItall pic.twitter.com/mH8hXBB74i
— Saudi International | Saudi International (@SaudiIntlGolf) January 28, 2022
The title holder
The current world No. 5 particularly appreciates this tournament, which he has won twice. The first time in 2019 with an aggregate score of -19, two lengths ahead of the Chinese Haotong Li (Alexander Levy had finished 5th). Dustin Johnson did it again a year ago with a solid -15, two points ahead Justin Rose and Tony Finau. The American, 2nd in 2020 behind the Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell but who hasn’t won since Masters (November 15, 2020), will attempt this week the pass of three, despite a very high field.
A plateau worthy of a Grand Slam
We had never seen that on the Asian Tour! First meeting of the 2022 Asian Tour season (stopped for 20 months by the pandemic linked to Covid-19), Saudi International is awash in stars. Among the 120 players involved (see the full list), there are thus 21 residents of the world’s top 50 (30 of the top 100). Among them, in addition to Dustin Johnson mentioned above, we find the Americans Xander Schauffele (world number 8), Bryson DeChambeau (n°9), Tony Finau (n°17), Jason Kokrak (n°22), Patrick Reed (n°26), Kevin Na (n°28), Matthew Wolff (n°34), Phil Mickelson (n°38), The australians Cameron Smith (n°11), Marc Leishman (n°35), Lucas Herbert (n°44), the Mexican Abraham Ancer (n°20), the English Tyrrell Hatton (n°21), Paul Casey (n°27), Lee Westwood (n°41), Tommy Fleetwood (n°46), the Belgian Thomas Pieters (n°31), recent winner of theAbu Dhabi HSBC Championship (DP World Tour), the Chilean Joaquin Niemann (n°32), the Spanish Sergio Garcia (n°45) and the Irish Shane Lowry (n°47). Multiple Asian Order of Merit number ones (as well as the first 30 of the last financial year) are there too as the young South Korean prodigy, only 19 years old, Jooyhung Kim (2021), the Thais Thongchai Jaidee (2001, 04, 09) and Jazz Janewattananond (2019), the Indian Shubhankar Sharma (2018), the Australian Scott Hend (2016) or Malaysian Gavin Green (2017).
Dizzying severance bonuses
To attract such a gathering of international golf stars, the organization has not skimped on the checkbook. We’re talking tens of millions of dollars in appearance fees here. (some even mention up to 45 million dollars), with seven-figure amounts for a large part of American players.
The little Thai phenomenon
Asian golf has this almost permanent ability to pull real phenomena out of its hat. We remember, for example, the Chinese Tianlang Guan having crossed the cut of the Masters 2013 at 14 years and 5 months. This time, we should quickly vibrate to the exploits of the Thai Ratchanon Chantananuwat, 14 years old, but who took 3rd place in the Singapore International in mid-January with four cards under par. He will be one of the seven amateurs at the start this Thursday…
Victor Perez, like at home…
This is not Tarbais’ first foray into the Asian Tour. On November 25, 2018, he took 3rd place in the Hong Kong Open, then co-sanctioned with the European Tour. The 94th player in the world has not missed any edition of Saudi International, where he feels a bit like home now. 19th in 2019 at -9, he fell to 38th place (-1) in 2020 (after having been in the lead after 36 holes) before signing an excellent top 5 in 2021 (4th to -12). Obviously very comfortable on this course, last year he was in 2nd place on the eve of the last lap!
