Jet-Setting Teenager An Aims to Scale New Heights

Manila, Philippines: Jet-setting An Seong-hyeon will have his feet planted firmly on the ground when he lines up in the Boys’ division at next week’s Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC) Junior Championships.

Over the course of the past two months, the 15-year-old Korean’s profile has been significantly raised thanks to outstanding performances in Scotland and the United States.

At Kilmarnock (Barassie) in mid-July, An posted a memorable come-from-behind victory at The R&A Junior Open. On what was his first visit to Scotland, An wrote his name into the record books as the first Korean to win that prestigious title.

A week later, An was back in the competitive spotlight at Oakland Hills Country Club in Michigan where he made it through to the Round of 32 at the 76th US Junior Amateur Championship.

Back on home soil last week, the indefatigable An fired a stunning closing 65 en route to finishing runner-up in the Korea Golf Association-organised Song Am Cup – a performance that saw him soar 40 places in the World Amateur Golf Ranking to 509th.

Now, he’s returning to the Philippines where he’ll be aiming to go one better than last year when he was joint runner-up in the APGC Junior Championships’ Boys’ division at The Orchard Golf & Country Club.

He also then had the distinction of joining forces with female compatriot Kim Min-sol to win the Team event for his country.

Despite An’s impressive run of recent results, there are four players in the Manila Southwoods starting line-up who are currently ahead of him in the WAGR – Singapore’s Troy Storm (305th), Malaysian Andrew Yap (327th), Vietnam’s Nguyen Duc Son (433) and Shinichi Suzuki of the Philippines (493rd).

At The R&A Junior Open, Storm ended ninth and Suzuki placed 11th.

New Zealand’s Cooper Moore, joint second behind An at Kilmarnock (Barassie), is also in the field this week along with Tom De Herrypon of France and Spaniard Raul Gomez Montalva, who are representing the European Golf Association.

In addition to Boys’ and Girls’ divisions at Manila Southwoods' Legends Course (September 4-6), there will be a category for teams, made up of one male and one female player from each country. The aggregate gross score of both players will be the team’s score. Lowest teams scores after 54 holes will be recognised as team champions.