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Find me a 100 winner - Juvic Pagunsan

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Emerging Inonesian is available at a very fancy price...

For all the outstanding young European talent on show this week, the leading youngster in Hong Kong could be one of the Asian Tour regulars, Juvic Pagunsan. Well I say youngster, Pagunsun is actually 29 even if still a rookie in golfing terms. He learned the game from the relatively late age of 13, and has only emerged in professional circles in the last two years. He first sprung to prominence when twice winning gold medals at the South-East Asian Games, the highlight of a successful amateur career.

Pagunsan turned professional just 21 months ago and made an immediate impact, winning his first event in his native Indonesia. He also swiftly won the Asian Tour's 'Rookie of the Year' award in 2006, finishing seventh on their money list only behind six players with high-level experience beyond Asia. The highlight came in this event last year on the same course, when finishing 2nd to Jose-Manuel Lara having led for much of the tournament and shooting four sub-70 rounds. No mean feat in a tournament that no Asian has managed to win since it has been co-sanctioned with Europe.

It's fair to say that this is a very speculative bet, as all the evidence points to a rather inconsistent player. Pagunsan has shown little in the last two weeks against world-class fields, and his 2007 Asian Tour record is nothing out of the ordinary. However, he won his first ever Asian Tour event just three weeks ago, once again in his native Indonesia. Given this apparent habit of producing the goods in familiar surroundings, he's worth an interest to go one better than last year at odds of around [130].