March 9, 2010
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern sophomore Eric Chun (Ansung City, South Korea/International Christian School) is one of 72 entrants and two amateurs at the March 10-11 International Final Qualifying (IFQ) -- Asia vying for a place in the 150th Open Championship at St. Andrews in July.
The IFQ -- Asia event is a 36-hole, two-day qualifying tournament to be held at the 6,992-yard, par-72 Palm Course at Saujana Golf and Country Club near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The top four finishers in the field advance to St. Andrews.
The highest-ranked player in the field is Hiroyuki Fujita, the current world No. 80. The two amateurs in the field are South Koreans Han Chang-won and Chun. The pair earned their places at IFQ -- Asia by virtue of their performance at the inaugural Asian Amateur Championship, held on Mission Hills' World Cup Course in China last November. Chun finished as the runner-up in that tournament, firing a 72-hole total of 7-under 281.
 Eric Chun (left) was featured on the Open Championship Web site ahead of this week's International Final Qualifying event in Malaysia.  |
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"The IFQ is a huge opportunity," Chun said after earning his IFQ -- Asia berth. "(In 2009) I got to the final stage of qualifying for the US Open. I was leading by two shots with three holes to play and finished bogey-par-bogey and went into a playoff and lost. That is a bad memory, so I am hoping to get a little payback."
Chun will go off the No. 10 tee Wednesday, March 10, at 8:10 a.m. local time in Malaysia, which is 6:10 p.m. CT today, Tuesday, March 9, in Evanston. He is paired with professionals Naoya Takemoto of Japan and Supramanium Sivachandran of Malaysia. The field will be re-paired following the first round.
For more information on The Open Championship, IFQ -- Asia and results, visit Opengolf.com. Northwestern's team is off for winter quarter finals before resuming the 2009-10 season March 25-26 at the Barona Collegiate Cup in San Diego, Calif.