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First edition of Korea Championship
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Scoring much dependent on weather conditions
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Read Steve's in-depth preview of the event here
Tournament History
Before the DP World Tour returns to mainland Europe with next week's Italian Open, it moves on from Japan to Korea for the inaugural staging of the Korea Championship.
The tournament is co-sanctioned with the Korean Tour and staged at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club in Incheon.
Venue
Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea, Incheon, South Korea.
Course Details
Par 72, 7470 yards
The Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea is described as a unique urban golf course that offers views of modern high-rise buildings along with the peaceful natural scenery of the west coast.
It's made up of two bent grass nine hole loops called the Urban and the Links although the two names merely confuse as it's not very linksy.
It opened in 2010 and it was used for the Songdo Championship on the Champions Tour in both 2010 and 2011 before hosting the Presidents Cup in 2015.
It was also the venue for the International Crown event on the LPGA Tour in 2018 and it's hosted the Genesis Championship on the Korean Tour since 2017.
Water is a constant theme and how tough it plays is very much dependant on the weather conditions.
As an indication as to how the wind can affect this coastal course, the winning scores in the six editions of Genesis Championship have ranged between -6 and -18.
PGA Tour star, Sungjae Im won the Genesis Championship here back in 2019 in six-under-par.
The venue was also the host course for the Shinhan Donghae Open between 2011 and 2014.
For more on the course, see the two clips below. The first one features Jack Nicklaus talking about the design of the course prior to the Presidents Cup and the second is a hole-by-hole tour.
TV Coverage
Live on Sky Sports all four days, starting at 05:00 on Thursday.
Locals likely to be outclassed again
There are several similarities between this week's event in Korea and last week's DP World Tour action in Japan.
Both tournaments are staged on Jack Nicklaus courses and as was the case last week, the host course has already been used multiple times on the co-sanctioning Tour.
Despite make up a fairly large percentage of the field at the ISPS Handa Championship last week in Japan, and despite having a reasonable bank of course form, the home contingency largely struggled and the experienced 42-year-old, Hiroshi Iwata, was the only player form Japan to finish inside the top-11 places. And he shot 65 from off the pace to climb into the places.
Takumi Kanaya and course winner, Rikuya Hoshino, both sat tied for fourth and just two off the lead with a round to go last week but both fell away on Sunday with so much on the line.
Earning a spot on the DP World Tour is a big deal and the pressure usually takes its toll.
A high finish in Japan a big plus
The DP World Tour staged back-to-back tournaments on Jack Nicklaus courses back in March in South Africa - the SDC Championship and the Jonsson Workwear Open - and several players performed nicely at both events.
The Jonsson Workwear Open winner, Nick Bachem, telegraphed his wellbeing with an 18th place finish in the SDC Championship the week before and Ewen Ferguson and Kristian Krogh Johannessen finished inside the top-six places in both events.
Lucas Herbert, who won the ISPS Handa Championship last week, had finished down the field in the RBC Heritage on the PGA Tour the week before and although jetlag and travel were issues to contend with, the fact that he'd played four rounds the week before was still a plus.
With no regular DP World Tour events being staged since March, like the majority of DP World Tour players in the field last week, the man he beat in extra time, Aaron Cockerill, hadn't played for a month.
Anyone that played last week is likely to be sharper here after the long break and it would be no surprise to see one of last week's contenders take the title.
Will we see another off-the-pace winner?
Kim Seung-hyuk was eight clear with a round to play when winning the inaugural edition of the Genesis Championship here in 2017 and Kim Tae-hoon had been four in front before winning by two in 2020 but the other four winners all came from off the pace and outside the top-four places with a round to go.
The 2018 winner, Lee Tae-hee, trailed by five before a 67 in round four saw him win by two, the last two winners, Jaekyung Lee (2021) and Kim Young-so (2022), trailed by four and three strokes respectively, and Sungjae Im trailed by seven through 54 holes in 2019, before going on to win by two.
Market Leaders
Last year's Portugal Masters winner, Jordan Smith, appears to be back in form.
The Englishman has fired four rounds in the 60s in each of his last two starts and he's ranked number one for Greens In Regulation on both occasions - finishing 24th in the Jonsson Workwear Open last month and sixth in Japan last week.
A slight improvement on the greens will see him contend again this week but I'm in no rush to back him at less than 20/1.
Rasmus Hojgaard is again well-fancied despite his somewhat disappointing weekend in Japan last week.
The young Dane sat tied for eighth and only three off the lead at the halfway stage of the ISPS Handa Championship but back-to-back 70s saw him slip to 16th.
That was his first appearance since he'd finished sixth in the Ras al Khaimah Championship back in February so the lacklustre weekend in Japan could be excused by rust, but he'd endured a poor weekend there too given he's been tied for the lead at the halfway stage.
Robert McIntyre looks the best bet towards the head of the market.
The 26-year-old Scot has finished seventh in Kenya last month and sixth in Japan last week in his last two starts and he's ranked inside the top-five for Strokes Gained Tee-to-Green on both occasions.
McIntyre will have next week's title defence in Italy on his mind and that can only bring positive thoughts given he took down the US Open winner, Matt Fitzpatrick, in extra time at the Marco Simone Golf Club last September.
Selections
After their impressive performances in Japan last week, I've backed the Scottish pair, Grant Forrest and Calum Hill.
Forrest has been in consistently good form of late, producing form figures reading 6-13-11-4 and that's by some distance his best run of form since he won the Hero Open back in 2021.
He'll be a bit disappointed by his finish on Sunday given he hit the front early in round four and that he was matched at low of 2.021/1 but he can learn from that and kick on here.
Hill really caught the eye last week and he'll be frustrated too. He was matched at a low of 2.77/4 but he parred the last five holes coming in and he missed out on the playoff by a stroke.
The last time Forrest and Hill contended in the same event was at that Hero Open in 2021 and Hill followed up his fourth placed finish behind Forrest with a win at the London Club - another Jack Nicklaus design - in the Cazoo Classic the following week.
Selections:
Grant Forrest @ 46.045/1
Calum Hill @ 46.045/1
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