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DP World Tour
SportGolf

Singapore Classic: Hong Kong’s Kho ready to grasp ‘great opportunity’ at DP World Tour event, knows tough times await

  • Taichi Kho is playing his first event as a professional golfer at Laguna National this week
  • The 22-year-old made the decision to leave the amateur ranks with a year full of tournaments ahead

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Taichi Kho tees off during a practice round ahead of the International Series Singapore in August, 2022. Photo: Asian Tour.
Josh Ball

Taichi Kho plays his first big tournament as a professional at this week’s Singapore Classic and said leaving the amateur ranks had been “a really tough decision”.

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The Hong Kong golfer won a qualifier in December to get into the DP World Tour event, and earned full status on the Asian Tour last month, but only made the decision to make the switch several days ago.

And while Kho, who had been playing college golf at the University of Notre Dame, said the choice was a tough one, competing at a tournament with a US$2 million prize fund was an opportunity that “can’t really be passed up on”.

“I feel like the majority of my ability to play golf at a professional level is credited to them [Notre Dame] so it was really tough to leave them,” Kho said. “But, you know, we kind of weighed our options, and we realised this is an opportunity that can’t really be passed up on. It made the most sense and it’s the best decision for me to kind of seize opportunity when it’s here.”

After playing in several high-profile events in 2022 as an amateur, including several on the Asian Tour’s International Series, Thursday’s tournament represents another step on a journey that really picked up pace after the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship in 2021.
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