Houston: World No. 1 Dustin Johnson is playing the “best golf in the world” and will start as the favourite to win the Masters next month, Jordan Spieth has said ahead of Thursday’s Houston Open.
Johnson maintained his impressive form by winning the WGC-Dell Match Play in Austin last weekend to mark his third victory in as many starts in 2017.
Spieth, who has a victory and two runner-up finishes at Augusta in the last three years, said he would have to be on top form to defeat Johnson at the first major of year, which starts on April 6.
“I think Dustin Johnson is the guy to beat in golf no matter where you are,” Spieth said at a news conference on Wednesday.
“If I play my best golf, I believe that I can take down anybody, and you have to believe that.
“But I think that he is the guy that everyone is saying he’s playing the best golf in the world right now.
“Major championships have huge weight and I’m not focused on trying to win majors to get to number one any more,” the 23-year-old added.
“So, that side of things, getting number one isn’t the pressure that I feel, but that’s the only way to really take big strides towards him because I don’t think he’s letting up any time soon.”
Meanwhile, the Asian Tour is aiming to hold more tournaments in “golf-crazy” South Korea and Japan after striking a breakthrough deal to return to China.
“Korea is an instrumental market for golf in Asia,” the Asian Tour’s CEO Josh Burack told AFP in a telephone interview on Thursday.
Two weeks ago Burack announced a new partnership with the Chinese Golf Association (CGA) that will see the Asian Tour co-sanctioning four new tournaments with prize purses of between $300,000 (Dh1.1 million) and $500,000.
Now he says the tour has designs on Korea and Japan as it seeks more playing opportunities for its members in the lucrative East Asian market.
“We are trying to put more focus on East Asia because those are the biggest markets in Asia, right?” said Burack.
“I mean Korea, Japan, China, so for sure that is an area I am trying to steer the Asian Tour towards.”
The Asian Tour has been largely shut out from the East Asian golfing powers of China, Korea and Japan since 2008 when those countries’ professional golf associations threw their weight behind the rival OneAsia Tour.
But struggling OneAsia has just three events confirmed on its 2017 calendar: the China Open co-sanctioned with the European Tour, and two others in Korea.
“We are meeting with the KPGA (Korean PGA) and definitely we are trying to add more tournaments in that market that is a golf-crazy market,” said Burack, who took the reins as CEO in October last year.
‘Brilliant’ China success
“We have one tournament (in Korea) already, the Shinhan Donghae Open, but we’d love to have more tournaments there and we are working towards that.
“We have three tournaments in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, two in Japan, one in Korea so we already have eight events (in East Asia).
“Now if we have four events in China and expand our presence in Korea, then for sure it will definitely increase the scale and prominence of our tour,” he said.
Burack noted that the Asian Tour had enjoyed “brilliant” success when it worked with the CGA prior to the emergence of OneAsia, and he believed that could be repeated.
“As you know the Asian Tour co-sanctioned with the CGA for a long period from 1995 to 2008. Over the course of that we feel it was a brilliant time for the Asian Tour and also for golf in China,” he said.
“A lot of original Chinese golf stars emerged from that period. Guys like Zhang Lianwei and Liang Wenchong went on to our tour and were trailblazers for Chinese golf. We believe a big part of the development of Chinese golf happened in that period.”
China boasts only one player, Li Haotong, in the world’s top 200 at present. But Burack said huge potential remained in world’s most populous nation.
“We’re delighted to be coming back into China. We know there are so many talented players there. The CGA want a strong domestic tour. They want it in the future to be as strong as the Japan Tour,” he said.
