– The Korean Hongtaek Kim (-7) is the first leader of the International Series Japan which began this Thursday at the Caledonian Golf Club in Chiba. He leads solo after a round with six birdies, an eagle and a solitary bogey. Hongtaek already knows what it means to win on the Asian Tour, after all he claimed victory at the GS Caltex Maekyung Open Golf Championship held in his country in 2024. However, if this player is known for anything it is for his extraordinary record on South Korea’s simulator circuit, known as the Korea’s Golf GTour. He has won many tournaments, to the point that he is known as the Simulator King or the Screen King. TGL is long overdue to make him an offer…
– Hongtaek has a one-shot lead over his compatriot Younghan Song (-6), a LIV Golf player, as well as over the Thai Poom Saksansin (-6), one of the stalwarts of the Asian Tour in recent years.
– The only Spaniard present in this inaugural 2026 International Series tournament is Pablo Ereño (-2). The Madrid native has had a notable start, much better than his 32nd position might suggest. The reason is that he played in the worst conditions, early in the morning. In fact, of the top 31 players, that is, everyone ahead of him, only nine players posted better scores than his when playing in the morning. Or in other words, if only his tee time counted, he would be right in the top 10.
– Pablo has been brilliant with his recoveries around the greens. It wasn’t his best day with shots to the flag, although the difficult conditions didn’t help; however he made the recovery on four of the six greens he missed. The disappointment was the three-putt on the 2nd, a par 5, which finished in a double bogey. Even so, he showed that even in bad weather he managed to take five birdies from the course, with a magnificent run of four successes between holes 11 and 15.
– Now it remains to be seen whether fortune will be a little more on his side tomorrow when he plays in the afternoon tee time and conditions are more favourable. If so, he will have a good chance to mount a bid for victory at the weekend in Japan.
– Special mention must be made of the performance of John Catlin (-5), the best player of the morning session alongside the Chinese Yuxin Lin (-5). The American, present in many LIV Golf events as a reserve, keeps trying to carve out a place among the world’s best golfers, although his path has been longer than others
