Inside the Ropes - Vol 1

Thank you to Timmy Constantine Low for taking the time to provide fantastic insight on these players. Timmy is a former touring professional who now works as a commentator for the Asian Tour, Korean LPGA tour, and Japan’s LPGA Tour.

Be sure to follow Timmy on X (@theblondedragon) and Instagram (@theblondedragon) for more!

How can you not put the man nicknamed “diamond” on this list? Phachara has been a permanent fixture on the Asian Tour since turning pro at the age of 14 what seemed like a lifetime ago. He’s racked up over 2.3 million in career earnings on the Asian Tour (plus over 1 million and change in his single season on LIV in 2022)

Since he began working with longtime friend and former Asian Development Tour order of merit winner, Pannakorn Uthaipas, Phachara has seen steady improvement in all facets of his game. He’s always been one of the best putters on tour (the kid makes more 8-15 footers than pretty much anyone in the game) and couple that with an increasingly solid tee to green game and that’s surely a recipe for success. He also led the tour in number of birdies made during the 2023 season.

People may knock him for the fact he hasn’t won more. With just 1 Asian Tour title and 9 runner up finishes (3 in 2022 alone) one could be forgiven if they made the assumption that he can’t close our tournaments. But make no mistake, he’s been knocking on the door plenty since his 2021 win in Phuket and has a final round scoring average of 67.5 across all his near misses - Phachara doesn’t give away tournaments, you have to earn them.

Phachara Khongwatmai will win again, he’s too good a player not to, and mark my words when he does have the breaks go his way he will win in bunches. Will 2024 be the year for it? It’ll take a brave soul to bet against “Diamond”