Andrew's Hangzhou Open (HPT) Preview
Before we turn to the HotelPlanner Tour, the Korn Ferry Tour wrapped up on Sunday. Anyone deep enough in their golf love to be reading this preview will be aware of the results, and of the twenty players who won their cards, but a few quick hits from me:
Particular congratulations to Ross Steelman for winning the mano-a-mano competition for first place, and thus entries into The Players and The Masters, over Sandy Scott.
Congratulations are also due for Austin Hitt, who not only won the finale, but rose 22 places to sixth to get his card, and for Davis Lamb who grabbed the final card after rising from 23rd.
Falling out of the top twenty were Ben Kohles – who has his card through the PGA rankings and skipped the event, and presumably doesn’t mind too much – and Cole Hammer, for whom this will be a savage blow. Hammer, who went to the 2015 U.S. Open at 16, won the Western Amateur in 2018 and has been a pro since 2022 has taken time to fulfil his undoubted early promise but is on his way. He’s one to watch next year on the KFT.
Others to watch next year and who missed the top twenty include the “first man out” Yuto Sugiura, the talented but (to date) inconsistent James Nicholas, and the PGA Tour U graduates who, unlike Tommy Morrison, didn’t grab a card in less than half a season of opportunity, particularly Christiaan Maas and Mahanth Chirravuri. I also remain high on John Marshall Butler, Barend Botha and Derek Hitchner, among others.
Next year on the KFT will be critical – there are expected to be places available on the Champions Tier (or whatever we’re supposed to be calling it) of the PGA Tour, whilst remaining on the KFT in 2028 will be undesirable as it effectively becomes the third tier of golf in the USA. Winning a PGA card next year will be more valuable than ever. I look forward to the last year of the KFT as we’ve come to know it.
Oh, my picks were dreadful. Cooper Dossey put two good rounds in but didn’t score over the weekend to take advantage of a strong position, whilst John Pak and Yuta Sugiura weren’t at the races. The successes of Hitt, Alastair Docherty and Nick Gabrelcik do suggest that the approach was sound and should be repeated next year – this is a course that’s about game management and approach play above all.
Moving onto the HotelPlanner Tour and we also endured a frustrating week in Hainan, with none of our trio troubling the top of the leaderboard, though both Jin Zihao (first round 67) and Wilco Nienaber (opening 69-68) gave some signs of promise before falling off the pace. Instead, Lars van der Vight picked up a second win on his first season on the HPT and will be on the DPWT next year. The man with the most Dutch name ever created isn’t the longest off-the-tee but was a model of consistency and shot an incredible 62 on Saturday to overhaul early leader Joseba Torres. The left-handed nephew of Jose Maria Olazabal is now on the fringes of grabbing his own DPWT card and is also young and talented and in his first HPT season. That’s definitely enough looking back for this “preview”, let’s get into the coming event.
The Tournament
The penultimate week of the season keeps us in China with a very similar field, and like last week the field is made up of the top seventy from the HPT, with a few invitees and the 48 leading China Tour players. Unlike last week’s Hainan Open the course at Hangzhou is reasonably new to us – this is the third iteration of this event – but it is not a complicated challenge to describe.
As I said last year, this is a typical Jack Nicklaus design, an “easy (if long) driving course, [with] challenging second shots, bunkers and water on approach, and undulating greens often set above the course.” I also said to disregard the apparent challenge of a 7,307 yard par-72 because “if you can take driver without much punishment, and you can, it becomes a bit of an accuracy test.” That proved to be the case, as Sebastian Garcia added his name alongside Conor Purcell to the roll of honour, two of the more accurate types in their respective years on the tour, neither long from the tee but both excellent with a wedge or short iron in hand. Garcia needed 73 holes to prove his superiority over Max Steinlechner, and 74 to beat Julian Perico, who was our 100/1 selection for the week. It still hurts, gentle reader.
It is notable that the Chinese contingent has struggled to compete here more than in Hainan, with none featuring in the top ten last year and only the young and now internationally renowned Yanhan Zhou making the top ten in 2024 (Wenyi Ding was in a tie for 11th.) That there is less home advantage may be in part due to the extra week of acclimatization for the visiting Tour, but I think is as much because this is a test which doesn’t feel out of the ordinary for golfers from anywhere in the world. As a Nicklaus design, this is international resort golf of a typical sort. With conditions set fair, we are simply looking for the likeliest approach specialist to put together a hot week on the greens and take the title.
The Selections
With a very similar field to last week, that leaderboard is required reading in putting a shortlist together, as are any other results in the far east, or at similar courses. I’d cast an eye over the recent Portugal Open, and going back earlier in the season events at Durban (the Jonsson Workwear) and Gurugram (PGTI Open.) All of that left me seriously considering another run with Julian Perico, but his recent form has been so dreadful that I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Other than a red-hot week with the putter in Denmark on the DPWT, he hasn’t made a top 40 since the first week of July and missed the cut last week. Albert Boneta would have been a strong consideration but so poor was his season that he didn’t make the field.
Instead, my first selection is among the classiest ball strikers in the field, Tatsunori Shogenji, who as an added bonus needs a strong result here to move up from 49th and threaten to win a card. He was twice a winner on the Japan Golf Tour last year, both events on courses with a similar focus on accuracy, particularly at Nishi Nasuno Country Club (where he won the Japan Players Championship,) tree-lined and designed by Robert van Hagge and his firm, including Rick Robbins, based in China and who worked for Jack Nicklaus for ten years. He ranked first on par-threes, sixth on par fours, eighth in greens in regulation and fifth in total driving. This year, with statistics harder to come by, he has four top tens from seven HPT starts, including second at the fiddly Kaskada course (Raffeisenbank,) sixth in Portugal and eighth last week. He’s in form, ideally suited by the challenge, and needs a win to take the leap up the rankings his talent merits.
Second on my list is a player I was frustrated not to have considered adequately last week, but who didn’t get the job done unbacked, despite playing well. John Catlin has plenty of experience in this region, as well as proven class at this level. He’s spent much of his career on the Asian Tour (including lots of 2024) and as far as I can tell is unique among the HPT players in coming here having won on the China Tour (the Asia-Pacific Classic in 2018.) He isn’t the longest off-the-tee but that didn’t stop him winning the English Open this year, and this will be more to his liking, and at 41st on the Road to Majorca rankings he, like Shogenji, really needs a win to move up the list if he wants to return to the DPWT.
Thirdly and finally, I’m taking another American and a long-time favourite of this column, Dan Erickson, who I simply believe is better than his results suggest. That’s a dangerous and often expensive line to take, especially for a player who missed the cut last week, but his second in Spain (at Fontanals, another course with some similarities) and sixth at Raffeisenbank both came off missed cuts and were both made possible by strong approach play, long the centre of his game. His best result as a pro so far came at Singapore last year, sixth in a good field and surrounded by excellent ball-strikers (Richard Mansell won, ahead of Keita Nakajima and the likes of Marcus Armitage, Matthew Jordan and Robert MacIntyre.) That was a similar length challenge on another lakeside course with similar agronomy and can prove an inspiration. Without a good result, Erickson will miss the Grand Final in Majorca and be searching for playing rights next year – I think he gets that result here.
Tatsunori Shogenji, 33/1
John Catlin, 50/1
Dan Erickson, 110/1
All 1pt e/w, ¼ odds 5 places, Bet365. As ever, you might get better odds as more markets come online.
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