John Catlin has admitted there’s “a lot of hard work to be done” over the remaining two weeks on the Asian Tour and The International Series for him to finally finish number one on both.
It all starts tomorrow when the US$2.5 million International Series Qatar tees-off at Doha Golf Club, and concludes next week at the US$5 million PIF Saudi International powered by SoftBank Investment Advisers.
This week the American could potentially complete the first part of his mission and claim the Asian Tour Order of Merit. It’s a far easier feat compared with topping The International Series Rankings.
He leads the Merit list on 3,030.06 points, with his nearest challenger, second-placed Richard T. Lee from Canada, trailing by the large margin of 1,245.81 points.
This week’s winner will earn 787.5 points, while 427.5 points goes to the player in second, meaning a good finish by Catlin and other results going his way will see him crowned Asian Tour number one for the first time, with too much of a gap to overcome in Saudi next week.
“It would mean so much to win the Asian Tour Order of Merit as this is where it all started for me,” said Catlin – a six-time winner on the Asian Tour, two of those coming this season.
“It has been a special year. I have done a lot of great things. I have two more weeks to go and hopefully I can do a few more great things and clinch both the Asian Tour and International Series titles.
“It would be really, really, special but there’s a lot of hard work to be done.”
Catlin surprisingly missed the cut at last week’s Link Hong Kong Open and while that did not have much impact on his Merit list ambitions, thanks to a dominant year, it has made the rankings race even closer than it already was.
He has an 82.95 lead on the rankings from New Zealand’s Ben Campbell, who is second and closed the gap by finishing second in Hong Kong, where he was defending champion.
Next week many more points are available – the winner earns 1,000 – so it is literally wide open and going to be exhilarating to watch as the winner earns a place on next year’s LIV Golf League.
Added Catlin: “For LIV Golf, having played there this year, having seen that, it gives me an enormous goal to try and win The International Series Rankings.”
Catlin attended a press conference today with American Patrick Reed, the winner in Hong Kong on Sunday.
Both players shot 59 this year: Reed in the third-round last week while Catlin registered his at the International Series Macau presented by Wynn when he was paired with Reed, also on day three.
Both players also sealed the deal with lengthy left to right putts on 18.
“You have to make a putt that has a lot of left to right to get it done,” joked Catlin.
“It [shooting 59] is just a culmination of a lot of hard work. I am sure Patrick would say the same thing. You just keep putting in the hours and doing the right stuff.
“It is fine margins out here, you can be doing a lot of things right, but it doesn’t happen. You just wait and try and go out on the day it does. Not really any secrets to share, I don’t have them, I wish I could share.”
The International Series is the most prized pathway in golf. It consists of 10 elite tournaments sanctioned by the Asian Tour and offers the year-long Rankings leader promotion to the LIV Golf League
