SMBC Singapore Open titleholder Jazz Janewattananond of Thailand signed off his 2019 season in exactly the same way he started it, with a convincing victory.
Twelve months on from his success at Sentosa Golf Club in the first Asian Tour event of the year, Jazz won the Thailand Masters, the final tournament on the 2019 schedule.
It was the 24-year-old’s second straight win after his victory in last week’s Indonesian Masters. That success saw him jump 12 places to 45th in the Official World Golf Ranking – sealing a spot at The Masters – and he is expected to move to 40th spot after grabbing the Thailand Masters title at Phoenix Gold Golf and Country Club in Pattaya.
In a repeat performance from a week earlier, Jazz stunned his rivals with a blistering third round of 11-under 60 (equalling the lowest ever round in an official Asian Tour event) and completed a five-stroke victory thanks to a closing 65.
His wins in the SMBC Singapore Open, Kolon Korea Open, Indonesian Masters and Thailand Masters saw him become just the second player in Asian Tour history to lift four titles in one season, joining countryman Thaworn Wiratchant in that exclusive club.
With the Asian Tour moneylist race already sewn up, the US$90,000 first prize took his total winnings for the season to more than US$1 million, the fifth player to achieve that feat.
“It has indeed (been) a very good year,” he said. “I had four wins this year and I ended the year the way I started.”
Jazz will defend his SMBC Singapore Open title at Sentosa Golf Club from January 16-19, 2020, where he will take on an elite field including Major winners Justin Rose of England and Sweden’s Henrik Stenson, multiple winner on the PGA Tour, Matt Kuchar of the United States and the cream of the Asian and Japan Tours.
