Tommy Fleetwood’s win at 6/1 at last week’s DP World India Championship made it two of Team Europe’s Ryder Cup heroes winning over the past three events following Robert MacIntyre’s success at the Dunhill Links. Thriston Lawrence provided us with a full each-way place at 66/1 (BetMGM) to make it a profitable week, although in reality he was never close enough to make it really interesting for us.
On we go and last year’s inaugural Genesis Championship won by Ben An has moved venue to Woo Jeong Hills Country Club, a course used regularly for the Korea Open on the local circuit over the years, with a field of 126 featuring a mix of DP World Tour players alongside the best that the Korean Tour can offer.
A relatively short field and 30 or so locals who predominantly appear towards the bottom of the betting means for a relatively tight betting heat with Hideki Matsuyama and Si-Woo Kim contesting favouritism around the 10/1 mark. Rasmus Neergaard-Peterson, Adam Scott, Sungjae Im and defending champion Ben An all rate around 16/1 or shorter.
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Course Overview. Measuring 7,367 yards for its Par of 71, Woo Jeong Hills Country Club presents a very different test to last year’s venue. Set in the rolling countryside of Cheonan around 50 miles south of Seoul, this tree-lined layout is a strategic, classical design that rewards sound course management as well as power. Elevation changes are a defining feature, with several tee shots played from raised positions to narrow, sloping fairways framed by mature woodland.
Water hazards come into play on a number of holes, most notably around the par-3 17th and the closing stretch, where accuracy is paramount to avoid a late stumble. Bentgrass is used throughout from tee to green, providing a smooth and consistent playing surface, while the putting surfaces themselves are subtly contoured and can become slick if the wind picks up across the valleys.
Woo Jeong Hills has been a regular host on the Korean Tour over the years, staging the Korea Open as far back as John Daly’s win in 2003. It’s a venue that has rewarded patience as much as flair – winning scores here have ranged from -2 to -16, depending on the setup and weather conditions. 3 Par-5s measuring 543, 567 and 570 yards offer scoring opportunities, as do a pair of sub-360 yard Par-4s, however the rest of the course is tough with the Par-3s offering stern resistance.
Course Winners: (Korea Open): 2024, Minkyu Kim (-11); 2023, Seungsu Han (-6); 2022, Minkyu Kim (-4); 2021, Junseok Lee (-8); 2019, Jazz Janewattananond (-6); 2018, Minchel Choi (-12); 2017: Yikeun Chang (-7); 2016, K.H. Lee (-16); 2015, K.H. Lee (-13); 2014, Seunghyuk Kim (-2); 2013, Sung Kang (-4); 2012, Daesub Kim (-5); 2011, Rickie Fowler (-16).
Tournament Stats. We’ve published some key player statistics for this week’s Genesis Championship which might help point us in the right direction.
Predictor Model. Our published Predictor Model is available here. As always you can build your own model using the variables available.
Weather Forecast. The latest weather forecast for the area is here.
Rain on Friday and into Saturday has given way to more pleasant conditions with sunny spells and light winds expected for the 4 days of tournament play. Temperatures will peak in the high 60s Fahrenheit.
Tournament Trends & Key Factors. Stats are extremely patchy for the Korea Open events held here, with only a selection of players furnished with numbers in the events where anything was captured at all. In terms of recent winners, only the following was captured:
2024, Minkyu Kim (-11). 279 yards (21st), 53.6% fairways (6th), 75% greens in regulation (1st), 55.6% scrambling (13th), 1.63 putts per GIR (1st)
2019, Jazz Janewattananond (-6). 295 yards (13th), 40.5% fairways (27th), 70.4% greens in regulation (5th), 75% scrambling (1st), 1.74 putts per GIR (7th)
It could be dangerous to put too much faith in very limited data, however of the stats that are available I’d err towards the side of GIR being the most important metric.
Current Form Of Winners: Going back to 2011 and looking at the recent form of our winners on this course, in the main the eventual champion was either rounding into form or had shown some solid signs in the recent past – indeed each of our winners had a top-20 finish in their last 3 outings with the exception of Rickie Fowler.
Even Rickie though had shown signs of life following his 2nd place finish at Akron, sitting inside the top 6 at the halfway point of the Deutsche Bank Championship and 8th after day 1 at the BMW Championship on his last start.
Last year’s Korea Open champion Minkyu Kim had also enjoyed an improvement in form in the lead up to the event, finishing 3rd at the KB Finance Liiv Championship after a slow start before sitting 4th after day 1 at the KPGA Championship before fading:
An had also recorded a top-20 on his last outing at Wentworth where he closed with a 65 to surge up the leaderboard.
Course Form Of Winners: In general, winners had shown some form around here prior to victory. It’s not universal, although even 2023 winner Seungsu Han had been first round leader the year before his win in 2023 despite an underwhelming overall record:
2024, Minkyu Kim: MC/MC/MC/46/1/4
2023, Seungsu Han: MC/20/MC/42
2022, Minkyu Kim: MC/MC/MC/46
2021, Junseok Lee: 7/MC/MC/26/32/MC
2019, Jazz Janewattananond: 32
2018, Minchel Choi: 6
2017: Yikeun Chang: 14/MC/22
2016, K.H. Lee: 43/6/1
2015, K.H. Lee: 43/6
2014, Seunghyuk Kim:40/45/MC/9/20/16
2013, Sung Kang: MC/16/MC/61/9/11
2012, Daesub Kim: 6/44/MC/15/5/2/26
2011, Rickie Fowler: Debut
It’s worth noting that of those players finishing inside the top 13 and ties in last year’s Genesis Championship, 12 of the 13 were regular DP World or PGA Tour players with only Hongtaek Kim proving the only exception to the rule.
Northern European conditions should feel comfortable for many of the DP World Tour regulars, and the extra yardage compared to last week might have a select few licking their lips at the prospect of competing and contending on this track.
My Final Genesis Championship Tips Are As Follows:
Thriston Lawrence 3pts EW 28/1 (6EW, 1/5) with Betfred
Tommy Fleetwood proved once again that high-calibre players dropping down to regular DP World Tour level have to be given the utmost respect, and we have another quandary this week with the likes of Hideki Matsuyama, Si-Woo Kim and others all capable of winning here if they find anything approaching their best golf.
The flip side last week though was that it took an outstanding final round from Fleetwood – where he made a lot of important putts – to finally shake off Keita Nakajima, and success is never assured in this sport, even for those at the very top of the game.
Our shining light last week was Thriston Lawrence and I’m going to stick with him again here in South Korea given there was a lot to like about his performance. A closing round of 65 was good enough for a tie for 3rd place in the end as he took on a claustrophobic Delhi GC with the kind of aggressive play that’s much more likely to reap rewards this coming week rather than last.
The frustration last week for his backers – and I’m sure Lawrence himself – were the number of missed putts, particularly in the early rounds. However, a closing stretch of 6-under through 7 holes – where he holed pretty much everything asked of him – must give some confidence as he heads to far more familiar Bentgrass agronomy here in South Korea.
As I noted last week, Thriston has chosen to play this latter end of the season on the DP World Tour rather than try to improve his PGA Tour position on their Fall rankings, and after last week’s effort he’s now up to 20th in the Race to Dubai and closing in on that final 2026 PGA Tour card currently held by Laurie Canter in 14th place. Another strong week here and he’ll have a great chance of a further year of Stateside golf next year.
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Daniel Hiller 1.5pts EW 50/1 (6EW, 1/5) with BetMGM
Although Fleetwood was ultimately successful last week in India, there was a period of Sunday’s round when it looked like Daniel Hillier could be the player who’d go on and take the title. Out in 30, after the Kiwi birdied the 10th hole for the fourth day in succession he’d briefly opened a 2-shot lead but from there it all went wrong, shooting 4 over for his final 5 holes and finishing in a tie for 9th in the end.
For a man whose power and SG Off the Tee game was never likely to suit last week’s short, fiddly track, the very fact that he got himself into a seriously contending position is encouraging, particularly as we now move to a course over 450 yards longer and one where his driver should be far more compatible.
Despite the closing few holes, the 27 year-old showed great progress over his tie for 23rd in Spain in terms of SG Off the Tee and Approach whilst also edging ahead a little with the putter, and he returns to Korea a year after finishing 22nd in this event in a week when the putter was pretty cold.
Hillier, like Thriston Lawrence, has a real chance of pushing on for a PGA Tour card from his current Race to Dubai position of 22nd, and he’s got to be super-motivated to put last week’s finish behind him, reset and go again here this week.
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Julien Guerrier 1.5pts EW 66/1 (6EW, 1/5) with BetMGM
Another player with plenty to play for this week is Julien Guerrier.
At 76th on the Race to Dubai, it’s now or never if the Frenchman wants to be involved in the lucrative PlayOff events that follow next week’s break. In truth that’s a disappointing position for Guerrier given that he finally broke his maiden at DP World Tour level this time last year (worth noting, biorhythm fans) at the Andalucia Masters, however a poor first half to this season has made 2025 an uphill struggle.
Perhaps turning 40 in July has helped him re-focus as there’s been enough since a pair of missed cuts at the Scottish and Open Championships to suggest he’s not given up on this year just yet. 24th in Denmark was followed by 8th at The Belfry, and although headline results don’t leap from the page since then, he was 2nd after day 1 at the French Open and 5th to halfway at the Spanish Open the week before last.
50th last week on a quirky track was neither here not there given that ranking 40th on Tour for SG Off the Tee suggests he was likely stifled in Delhi; instead this more demanding track in terms of power off the tee should appeal far more, as will the Bentgrass agronomy for a player who topped SG Putting on the A4 Bentgrass putting surfaces in Andalucia when winning there 12 months ago.
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Minkyu Kim 1pt EW 100/1 (6EW, 1/5) with William Hill
Finally, of the local players in attendance at longer prices, the one who sticks out most is Minkyu Kim.
The South Korean is a player who’s been on many a punter’s radar since he became the youngest golfer to win on the Challenge Tour back in 2018 at the tender age of 17, having already won twice on the Europro Tour the year before.
Progress has been steady if unspectacular since, however it’s certainly been enough to garner the attention of LIV when he stood in for the injured Ben Campbell when that Tour ventured to Korea earlier this year. Three wins on the Korean circuit are the most notable efforts since his Challenge Tour breakthrough, and importantly for our purposes two of those came here on this course in the co-sanctioned Korea Open which also forms part of the Asian Tour circuit.
Wins here at 4-under in 2022 and 11-under last year, when he was 3 clear of his nearest rival, suggest that the 24 year-old has got the measure of this course in differing conditions and he’s got to be considered for this against a whole host of more prestigious opponents this week.
2nd at the KPGA Championship in June was followed by 4th the week after at the Gunsan CC Open, so last week’s return to form with a runner-up finish on the Korean Tour’s Charity Classic may well be the precursor to another competitive outing this week.
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