Asian Tour Book 2024

but stopped on the cart path. From there, he hit a brilliant shot to eight feet and made the birdie putt. A relieved Lewton said: “It’s just been a long, long time, and I feel like in the last three years, I’ve been playing quite good. So, it’s just nice to get over the line and win a tournament again, because it’s been a long time since I had that feeling. “I thought when I got through 10 holes, I felt like I was coasting. And then I made Sampson Zheng [left] was making only his third start as a pro on the Asian Tour. Steve Lewton [far left] had come close to winning multiple times before his second success. it difficult again through 14, and then I birdied 16 and 17, and then I had a mini disaster on 18. I was just very happy to get it done the second time of asking in the play-off. “I am very happy not to finish second again.” Wilkin, who graduated from the 2023 Asian Development Tour, was disappointed not to have completed the job. “I just didn’t play well enough to be fair, but I thought I handled myself pretty well,” said Wilkin. “I controlled my emotions until probably the play-off, but I reckon those were just poor swings. “I still felt pretty good. It’s all good. I mean, I would have loved to win. It would have wrapped up my card for a couple of years, but I feel like the game is going in the right direction.” Without doubt, Wilkin owned the opening day after his 61, when he broke Frank Nobilo’s 30-year course record. “It was one of those days. I hit it close on four or five holes. I had a couple of easy tap-ins, then holed a few nice putts and didn’t make any mistakes. I will take that for sure. There was some lucky stuff, which I am going to take and run with it,” Wilkin said after Thursday’s round. Zheng, who finished runner-up at the 2023 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship, showed his class once again with rounds of 65 and 63 on the first two days. A double bogey on the par-four eighth hole on Saturday was his only big mistake as he posted his best finish on the Asian Tour, bettering the tied fourth at International Series England. “I kept myself in it the entire day. There were a couple of putts that just didn’t quite fall my way on the back nine. I gavemyself opportunities all day, and that’s what I wanted to do, and I did that. So overall, happy with the performance,” the University of California, Berkeley graduate said. Australia’s Travis Smyth (67) and China’s Liu Yanwei (68) were one shot adrift of the play-off, finishing tied fourth at 15-under-par total. 79 MA NDI R I I NDONE S I A OPEN DAMA I I N DA H GO L F ( P I K CO U R S E ) , J A K A R TA AU G U S T 2 9 - S E P T EM B E R 1 | P R I Z E MON E Y: U S $ 5 0 0 , 0 0 0