World City Championship golf: Taichi Kho shows ‘something I didn’t know I had’ to make history in Hong Kong
- ‘The more I thought about [winning], the more nervous I felt,’ he admits after becoming first Hongkonger to win on the Asian Tour
- Earning a spot to play in this year’s Open Championship at Royal Liverpool Golf Club ‘hasn’t sunk in yet’, Kho adds
From struggling to stand over an eagle putt on 13, to just keeping it together as he walked down the 18th fairway with a two-shot lead, the Hongkonger went through a gamut of emotions on his way to making history as the first local golfer to win on the Asian Tour.
With a four-shot lead at the start of the day, Kho dropped one immediately when he resumed his third round by chipping his wayward drive out of the trees onto the fourth fairway, leaving him 174 yards over water back to the third green.
“The more I thought about [winning], the more nervous I felt, and the pressure, so all I focused on was chipping out on three and hit a good iron shot from there,” Kho said.
Over the next 15 holes, Kho experienced everything from the elation of chipping in for birdie on nine, to the nerves of an eagle putt, the clear-headed conviction that driver on 18 was his only option, to a “sense of euphoria” at the end.
