Hua Hin: More than 50 Asian Tour winners and six Order of Merit champions will form part of an elite 144-man field who will tee up at Black Mountain Golf Club for the International Series Thailand from March 3-6.
Reigning Asian Tour No.1 Kim Joo-Hyung of South Korea, four-time Asian Tour champion John Catlin of the United States, as well as Thai aces Jazz Janewattananond, Sadom Kaewkanjana and Phachara Khongwatmai are among the notable names slated to play.
Tour veterans Thaworn Wiratchant and Prayad Marksaeng of Thailand, Australia's Scott Hend, India's Jyoti Randhawa and Jeev Milkha Singh and Singapore's Mardan Mamat, boasting a collective total of 57 titles on the circuit, will also add to the collection of star power in the US$1.5million event.
Hend, who has three wins in Thailand, is the last player on the Asian Tour to triumph at Black Mountain Golf Club when he won the Thailand Classic in 2016.
England's Steve Lewton, who leads the 2022/23 Order of Merit following a solid tied-fourth place finish at the season-opening Saudi International this month, will also compete as well as American Berry Henson, a brand ambassador and resident of Black Mountain Golf Club.
Amateur Ratchanon Chantananuwat of Thailand, who has been hogging the limelight since the Asian Tour's resumption in Phuket in November, will make another appearance having received a sponsors' invitation.
The 14-year-old prodigy has not missed a single cut in his last five starts on the Asian Tour and finished third at the Singapore International last month.
Other leading players in the impressive field include Chan Shih-chang of Taiwan, India's Shiv Kapur, Japan's Ryosuke Kinoshita and Hideto Tanihara, Wade Ormsby of Australia and Kim Bi-O of South Korea.
The tournament is the first of 10 International Series events on the Asian Tour this year.