Golf Update: Thawarn claims a victory at the Asian Tour thanks to the typhoon
No doubt, he is a lucky chap! Thaworn Wiratchant has been declared as the new winner of the Asian Tour's inaugural Yeangder Tournament Players Championship, after the threat of Typhoon Fanapi hitting Taipei speculated the news on Sunday.
Weather forecasts alarmed the organizers of the event, that, Typhoon Fanapi was about to hit the province of Fujian with a speed of 162 –km-per hour. Resulting in Wanchai Meechai, the Tournament Director of the Yeangder TPC called off rest of the event,
stating that the threat of Typhoon Fanapi was a serious one and they could not take chances on it. Hence, the only choice left was to cut the tournament to 54 holes.
The result of this decision proved to be fruitful for the 43-year-old veteran, who claimed his 12th Asian Tour title with this victory. Wiratchant posted 10-under-par 206 in three days aggregate. Initially, he entered the third round with a two-under-par
70 and took a lead in it. However, after the emergency was declared, Wirachant was handed over the trophy for being the leader of three rounds.
According to the winner, he is very happy over his victory and is looking forward to extend it. He further stated that, it really did not matter whether he won from 54 holes or 72 holes. What really counted was that, he was the current title holder of
the championship that carried a purse of $300,000 and was happy over his achievement.
Moving further, the three other players who benefitted from the storm were Chinnarat Phadungsil and Iain Steel. Chinnarat carded three rounds of 70, 70, 67 to take the second place while, Steel took third place by scoring 68, 69 and 71 in three rounds. They
were followed by Australia's David Gleeson and American Ben Fix to take the fourth spot with an aggregate of 209 strokes.
Coming to the event, The Yeangder Tournament Players Championship was taking place at the course of Linkou International Golf Club. This is the second event on the Asian Tour to be cut down to 54-holes. Earlier, it was the Ballantine's Championship which
took place from 22nd April – 25th April in Korea, this season. As for the storm, emergency has been declared in the province of Fujian today.
According to the media reports, trees have been uprooted, billboards have been knocked down and electricity has been cut down. Daily life has been badly affected although; no causality has been reported yet. The flood hit the Gulei Township in Zhangpu County
at 7 am therefore; the authorities ordered the schools and private institutions to be shut down. With such torrential winds and rain, it was difficult for the adults to go out for work, let alone the kids.
Moreover, the same typhoon hit Taiwan on Sunday, and a heavy loss was reported. 76 people were injured while more than 10,000 were evacuated and taken to a safe place.$ 3.15 million loss was incurred in the agricultural sector.
Funds are being flown into the province to help the flood victims, so that they can resume their lives. Although, the government has started rehabilitation process to cope with the problems faced by the people, but, as the actual stats of damage haven’t
reached the authorities, therefore the execution is slow.
To wrap it up, Typhoon Fanapi has hit Taipei; thereby the Asian Tour's inaugural Yeangder Tournament Players Championship has been called off after the third round. Thaworn Wiratchant has been declared as the new winner, followed by a
duo of Chinnarat Phadungsil and Iain Steel at second and third position respectively. David Gleeson and Ben Fix have made it to the fourth spot. The only conclusion one can get from the results is that Thaworn is plane lucky as, he is one of the few people
who have benefitted from the storm.
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