The premier Asian Tour occasion of the 12 months occurred this week at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club with Abraham Ancer in the end elevating the trophy on the 2023 Saudi International. Firing rounds of 63-66-64-68, Ancer signed for 19 underneath whole, two strokes away from reigning PGA Tour Rookie of the Year Cameron Young and 4 away from fellow PGA Tour member Lucas Herbert.
Holding the lead after every spherical, the 31-year-old was momentarily caught by Young within the ultimate spherical when the Bronx bomber linked on 4 birdies in his opening seven holes. Standing at 19 underneath on the time, Ancer carded a birdie-bogey end to his outward half earlier than 9 consecutive pars coming house. With Ancer holding regular, Young pressed and located hassle, taking part in holes Nos. 8-15 in 3 over earlier than a flurry of late birdies made the end result a lot nearer than the truth.
“That was my first wire-to-wire win,” mentioned Ancer. “I just didn’t think about where I was on the leaderboard. I just felt like I just want to do that again. I played really good the first round, and I just felt like I wanted to keep that going. I kept telling myself, just imagine if I was in like 20th place and just got to go out there and shoot a low one. It worked out. I stayed in the moment. Didn’t really think too much about the previous shots or what was coming after. So I’m really happy with my frame of mind during these four rounds.”
Ancer’s victory on the 2023 Saudi International marks his fourth professional victory and first for the reason that 2021 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. Playing totally on LIV Golf, with the occasional look on the DP World Tour and Asian Tour, this triumph will embody a much-needed inflow of Official World Golf Rankings factors. Projected to maneuver from No. 37 to No. 26 within the rankings, Ancer will likely be idle till LIV Golf returns to his house nation of Mexico for its season debut Feb. 24-26.
“I was really excited to get the year started,” mentioned Ancer. “There’s definitely plenty of things to improve on, but this gives me a lot of confidence. Just knowing that what I’ve been working on back home definitely, definitely is working. Obviously the time off was huge. My body feels really good. So that’s a huge plus, too.”
Ancer’s triumph means it was one more shut name for Young who now instructions eight podium finishes since this time final 12 months with no title to point out for it. With none of these outcomes coming within the type of a late collapse or an premature mistake down the stretch, the 25-year-old stays in a sound headspace forward of an enormous stretch on the PGA Tour taking part in calendar that may start subsequent week on the WM Phoenix Open.
“If I had to — I feel like it’s just — I mean, I think having those finishes is just proof that I can win anywhere the more I put myself there,” mentioned Young. “I’m proud of all those finishes. There’s nothing I’ve thrown away, I don’t think. If one or two of them was a four-shot lead that I didn’t finish off, that’s a bummer, but I’ve been beat a lot. I haven’t thrown any of them away.”