By Olle Nordberg, founder of golf equipment survey company, Northmountain International

With the Asian Tour season opener coming up this week with the SMBC Singapore Open at Sentosa Golf Club’s Serapong Course, there are a lot of players looking forward to a fresh season. Some will be aiming for a breakthrough and a first win, while others will be trying to build on results from 2018, make an early move to the top of the Habitat for Humanity Standings, and improve their ranking on the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR).

Also, a very big deal this week is an opportunity to book an early ticket to the 2019 Open Championship at Royal Portrush, as there are spots up for grabs for the top four players not already exempt.

Two of the best young players on the Asian Tour that have a good chance for a great season and a ticket to The Open based on recent form and past performances in this event are 23-year-old Jazz Janewattanond of Thailand and 24-year-old Miguel Tabuena of the Philippines. Both had strong finishes to the 2018 Asian Tour season and will be trying to continue the good form.

Jazz managed to clinch one of these spots in 2018 by finishing tied-fourth at Sentosa. He also had a good finish in 2016 where he was tied-11th. He is also one of the hottest players in the region at the moment; in his last two Asian Tour events, he finished third at the Queen’s Cup Hosted by Jaidee Foundation and second at the BNI Indonesian Masters. He won all his four matches at the mixed Ryder Cup-style Friendship Cup between Thailand and Japan in late December, and he finished lone fifth at last week’s Boonchu Ruangkit Championship on the Asian Development Tour.

Jazz was ranked 121st on the OWGR before last week’s event, a career-high position, and a victory at last week’s event could have seen Jazz move into the top 100. He still picked up 2.4 points by finishing 5th and moved up to a new high of 111th on this week’s updated ranking list. Any positions gained could be very useful to get a start in the U.S. PGA Championship at Bethpage Black in New York, which will be played in May this year. The top-100 on the OWGR at a later cutoff date should gain entry into this Major. Last year, we saw Justin Harding playing his way into the top-100 and the PGA Championship by winning in Indonesia and Thailand in consecutive starts on the Asian Tour.

Tabuena, who is currently ranked 208th on the OWGR, had a close call with a tied-eighth finish last year missing his chance for an Open Championship spot by a couple of shots. Had the event been part of the Open Qualifying Series in 2016 when he finished tied-fourth, he would have secured a ticket to Royal Troon then. He recently won the Queen’s Cup Hosted by Jaidee Foundation in late November, where he birdied four out of the last six holes for a closing four-under-par 66 to beat Johannes Veerman by one shot and Jazz by two shots.

The Serapong Course is a long and demanding course and playing as a par 71 at 7,398 yards, it is a big challenge for even the best players in the world as we can see from recent history.

Sergio Garcia of Spain

Last year Sergio Garcia won by dominating the field by coming in at or near the top in several of the most important statistical categories. Garcia ranked first in driving distance with an average of 320 yards off the tee, with a driving accuracy of 78.5 per cent (ranked fourth in the tournament). He was ranked first in greens in regulation (GIR) with an average of 90.28 per cent for the week and his putts per GIR was also a very respectable 1.78. I think it is safe to say that these numbers would leave you at the top of most leaderboards anywhere in the world.

However, if we expand the data to include the top-10 finishers during the last three years, what does it take to have a chance to win this event on Sunday afternoon?

One of the categories that stand out is scrambling. Being as long and difficult as the Serapong is, it is inevitable that players will miss a fair number of greens even when playing well. The difference in having a chance to win or getting a top-10 compared to finishing in the middle of the pack might be how well you scramble, or in other words get the ball up-and-down when you miss the green.

Miguel was ranked first in this category in 2016, and with a superb scrambling percentage of 84.63 per cent that helped him to a tied-fourth finish, three shots behind the winner Younghan Song. In 2018 when Tabuena finished tied-eighth in the event, he had a 69.83 scrambling percentage that ranked him sixth for the week which is still very good. Being ranked seventh in driving distance with 304 yards, seventh in driving accuracy with 76.79 per cent and third in GIR with 81.94 per cent last year didn’t exactly hurt him either and is a testament to Tabuena having a very solid swing and overall game.

Miguel Tabuena of the Philippines

Miguel’s scrambling clubs as of the final event in 2018 in Jakarta consisted of Callaway’s MD3 50* bent to 51* with 12* bounce and MD4 58* bent to 59* wedges with 8* bounce. Since he plays with a driver, 3-wood, 5-wood and 3-P Irons, it doesn’t leave any room for an extra wedge. A very traditional setup.

Jazz’s tied-fourth finish in Singapore last year was helped in part by his eighth ranking in scrambling, a category in which he also finished sixth among regular Asian Tour players for the full 2018 season. He also ranked 10th in GIR last year at this event, and high marks in GIR and scrambling is a very useful combo for a good overall result. While he arguably has one of the best swings and most complete games on the Asian Tour, his short game ability and soft hands should not be underestimated.

His wedge setup in Jakarta included all Titleist Vokey Designs, with an SM7 50* F-Grind, SM7 54* M-Grind, and a Vokey Prototype 60* T-Grind. In addition to the driver he uses a 3-wood, 5-wood, a 4 utility iron and 5-P Irons, so he had room for an extra wedge.

The full bag is mixed with equipment from four different manufacturers, following in the footsteps of players like Brooks Koepka and Paul Casey choosing to select clubs individually instead of going for only one manufacturer’s gear.

With a field that includes some of the best players in the world like defending champion Sergio Garcia, Paul Casey and Matt Fitzpatrick, along with the top players from the Asian Tour and Japan Tour, the SMBC Singapore Open will be a very exciting start to the 2019 Asian Tour season.