KEY POINTS
- Chan Shih-chang won the Blue Canyon Phuket Championship
- The Taiwanese golfer pulled off an amazing comeback that helped him win it all
- Chan bagged his third Asian Tour title since winning his first two in 2016
Chan Shih-chang of Chinese Taipei won with a gripping finish to win the $1 million Blue Canyon Phuket Championship on Sunday, November 28.
Moreover, he became the first winner on the Asian Tour following a 20-month hiatus due to the pandemic.
The 35-year-old shot a final-round four-under-par 68 to finish on 18 under par and beat bot Thailand’s Sadom Kaewkanjana and South Korea's Joohyung Kim by one shot, Reuters reported.
“It’s impossible. It’s amazing,” Chan, whose last win on the Asian Tour came in the 2016 Asia-Pacific Diamond Cup in Japan, stated via Asiatour.com.
“I am so happy to be back after the problems everyone has had with COVID-19. My front nine was not very good but an eagle on nine turned things around.
Chan was paired in the final group with another Korean golfer in Sihwan Kim and Sadom.
Despite eagling the ninth, he was still behind by three at the turn.
But the Chinese-Taipei star proved to his fellow competitors up when he birdied four holes in a row from the 13th hole.
He was tied with Sadom on the par-four 18th hole. While Chan got up and down from the front of the green to make par after holing out from four feet, the Thai player missed the green to the left with his approach and failed to make his 12-footer for par.
Chan warmed up for this week’s event by finishing second in the Yeangder TPC on home soil last week--an event normally played on the Asian Tour but could not be played this year due to the uncontrollable conditions set forth by COVID-19.
He already has two Asian Tour titles to his name. Both came in 2016 with the first being at the King’s Cup in Thailand. The second was during the Asia-Pacific Diamond Cup.
Aside from those feats, Chan is also a six-time winner on the Asian Development Tour--the last coming in 2018.
Chan Shih-chang of Chinese Taipei with the Blue Canyon Phukey Championship trophy Photo: Photo credit: Paul Lakatos/Asian Tour
