Mungyeongjun Ties for 12th Place... LIV Golf Ancer Wins

Asian Tour Opening Event Saudi International Final Day

Moon Kyung-jun (photo) performed well in the opening event of the 2023 Asian Tour season.

On the 5th (local time), Moon Kyung-jun shot a 7-under-par final round at the Royal Greens Golf & Country Club (par 70, 7,048 yards) in King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia, finishing tied for 12th place (9-under-par 271) at the PIF Saudi International (total prize money $5 million).

This is a 'big match' on the Asian Tour hosted by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF). It began in 2019 as the DP World Tour (formerly the European Tour), but after the launch of LIV Golf supported by PIF last year, relations between the DP World Tour and PIF soured, leading to its transition to the Asian Tour.

Moon Kyung-jun started tied for 45th and swept up seven birdies without any bogeys. His strong start included a birdie on the 1st hole (par 3) and three consecutive birdies from the 3rd to 5th holes. In the back nine, he added three more birdies on the 10th and 14th holes (both par 4) and the final 18th hole (par 5). Moon is a player who has secured two wins on the Korean Professional Golfers' Association (KPGA) Korean Tour. In 2019, he received the Genesis Award, the lowest scoring average award, the Best Player Trophy, and the Happy Together Award.

The tournament victory went to Abraham Ancer (Mexico) of LIV Golf. He added 2-under-par in the 4th round to complete a two-stroke victory (19-under-par 261). Maintaining the top spot on the leaderboard wire-to-wire over four days, he earned $1 million (approximately 1.25 billion KRW) in prize money. Ancer won the World Golf Championships (WGC) FedEx St. Jude Invitational in August 2021. He left the PGA Tour in June last year to join LIV Golf, which is backed by Saudi Arabian capital. This is his first win on the Asian Tour.

Last year’s PGA Tour Rookie of the Year Cameron Young (USA) finished 2nd (17-under-par 263), Lucas Herbert (Australia) 3rd (15-under-par 265), Paul Casey (England) 5th (13-under-par 267), and Matthew Wolff (USA) tied for 10th (10-under-par 270). South Korea concluded the tournament with Park Sang-hyun tied for 18th (8-under-par 272), Kim Young-soo tied for 28th (6-under-par 274), and Lee Tae-hee tied for 58th (even par 280).