Thailand’s Jazz Janewattananond is not about to rest on his laurels as he heads back into action with the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth getting underway next week.
Thailand’s Jazz Janewattananond is not about to rest on his laurels as he heads back into action with the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth getting underway next week.
Jazz continued to underline his status as one of the rising stars of the game when he defeated a host of world-class players including Sergio Garcia, Paul Casey and Davis Love III for his third Asian Tour victory in Singapore last month.
But he has since moved on from that win and is determined to put up another good showing at the Lake Karrinyup Country Club when the Asian Tour, European Tour and ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia tri-sanctioned event is played there from February 14-17.
“That win in Singapore was pretty exciting. I got back home to Hua Hin and everyone threw me a party. But it’s straight back to business and the grind of practising after that,” said Jazz.
“This will be my third time playing at Lake Karrinyup and I feel like I’ve got to know the course a lot better now. I haven’t played much match play events and the first time I got to play in such a format in my professional career was at the Friendship Cup late last year where I won all my matches. So I hope to get into the shootout on Sunday and see what happens,” added the 23-year-old.
Jazz’s victory in Singapore played a huge role in breaking him into the top-100 on the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) for the first time in his career.
While the young Thai is pleased with his achievements which will set him up for bigger playing opportunities, he knows how cruel the sport can be and why it is important for him to stay on top of his game.
“There has been lots of ups and downs in my career. You are only as good as your last event. So you got to try to be as good as you can every week. I didn’t think I would be able to break into the world’s top-100 so fast. But now that it has happened, I’m aiming higher and want to break into the top-50. It’s a step-by-step process,” said Jazz.
Jazz was just 14 when he played his way into the history books by becoming the youngest ever player to make the halfway cut at an Asian Tour event in 2010.
He missed the grade at the Asian Tour Qualifying School in 2017 but bounced back remarkably with his breakthrough victory in Bangladesh the same month.
Jazz dared to believe he can turn things around and sometimes it takes failure to bring out success.
“I made peace with pressure. I’ve learnt how to handle the pressure somehow and I guess those setbacks helped in my game,” said Jazz.
Jazz will be part of a strong Asian Tour field that also features Order of Merit champions Gavin Green of Malaysia and Australia’s Scott Hend. Other marquee players expected to headline the event include Thomas Pieters, who is one half of the ISPS HANDA World Cup of Golf winning Belgium team, Australian Lucas Herbert, New Zealander Ryan Fox, Spaniard Jorge Campillo and Japan’s Yusaku Miyazato.