Major time for Catlin

American John Catlin begins the next chapter of his meteoric rise in the game tomorrow when he makes his debut in a Major, at the PGA Championship – on the daunting Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, South Carolina.

It was only a month ago that the 30 year old claimed the Austria Golf Open – following five gripping sudden-death play-off holes against Germany’s Maximilian Kieffer – to secure his third victory on the European Tour in eight months, which moved him into the top-100 on the Official World Golf Ranking.

“I’d love to crack that top-50 in the world,” said the Californian, after winning in Austria.

“Just to get a chance to play in some Major Championships – I’ve actually never played in a Major. I’m thinking this gives me a very good chance to play in the US PGA Championship, that was kind of my goal.

“Hopefully it’s good enough and to get into those events and to have the chance to win a Major, that’s been my goal since I was a kid.”

Well, that was all made possible soon after when he received a special invitation to play in the PGA Championship – the second Major of the year, where American Collin Morikawa will defend.

“It’s very exciting [to get to play in the PGA Championship]. It’s the only level of golf I haven’t been to yet,” Catlin said, more recently.

Catlin has been rewarded for his success by being paired in a high-profile group consisting of two other rising stars in the game: Scottish lefthander Robert MacIntyre and big-hitting American Cameron Champ. They tee-off on the 10^th at 7.49am, local time.

While it was only a month ago that Catlin completed his hat-trick in Europe, it was only five years ago that he burst onto the scene and became a prolific winner.

He claimed the Combiphar Golf Invitational in Indonesia on the Asian Development Tour in 2016, won again on that Tour the following year, and in 2018 triumphed three times on the Asian Tour – leading to him to being voted by his peers the Asian Tour Player of the Year. And, he won on the Asian Tour the following season, at the Thailand Open, before taking Europe by storm in September 2020 with victories in the Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters and the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open.

A remarkable and inspiring streak for a player who had been struggling to find a place to regularly play tournaments after turning professional in 2013.

Catlin will try and emulate the success of his compatriot Shaun Micheel – who in 2003, after having cut his professional teeth in Asia and won the 1998 Singapore Open, claimed the PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club, ranked 169th in the World, becoming one of the biggest underdogs to win a Major.

Six-time Asian Tour winner Jazz Janewattananond from Thailand, who impressively tied 14^th in this event in 2019, tees-off at 1.31 in the afternoon, on the 10^th; Japan’s Rikuya Hoshino, winner last week at the Asia-Pacific Diamond Cup, starts at 9.12am on the first; and Asian Tour winner Kurt Kitayama from the United States is off at 12.30pm, also from hole one.

 

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