The best Golfing Major there is, the US Masters, starts next weekend and sadly we are short of our usual heroes. There is no Miguel Angel Jiminez aka The Mechanic, no Andrew aka Beef, and Rod Pampling needs to win the Houston Open and although not going too bad it seems unlikely. We need new hero to follow, that has the right amount of personality and ability. Step forward man sometimes knows as the Asian John Daly – Kiradech Aphibarnrat.
The ‘Asian John Daly’ Kiradech Aphibarnrat hails from Thailand, and is called that based on his appearance of being “unathletic” physique according to Wikipedia, which is a little unfair, but is also one of the reasons we’re now on board.
He’s no mug, ranked 29th in the world, and has won on the European Tour four times, mostly in co-sanctioned events. His Top 50 ranking is the reason he’s playing at Augusta.
Australian fans may remember him from his recent victory in Golf’s attempt at T20 masquerading as the ISPS Handa World Super 6 Perth. He beat Australian James Nitties that day. As for the Super 6 format, pfffft, we prefer our version of Rock N Roll Golf.
But of course it is not just on course achievement that is important to us when it comes to following at Golf. They have to have something extra. A bit or a lot of personality.
In an interview for the Golf Digest, he laid out a few of the reasons we see him as entertaining, not a hard thing to do in a bunch of professional golfers.
The full article is here, the best of below.
Pressed on why he plays golf, he offered up this….
“Watches, I think all that I can make, the earnings from last year has gone to buy all of my watches,” he said. “So I have a lot of work to do. That’s why I play a lot around the world, that you guys see. I spend a lot of it on all that stuff.”
Then he explained why he bought a rare White Ferrari…
“If I go anywhere, everybody knows there’s only one in Thailand,” Aphibarnrat said. “So that’s the key why I had to buy white.”
Now that we’ve established he is interesting, the question has to be asked, can he win?
After years of expecting wins from Rod Pampling and Miguel Angel Jiminez, he is at a minimum as qualified to win the US Masters as those gents, if not more so given his ranking. And, he’s only paying $101 for the US Masters too, so why not jump on the value. He certainly will.
So we salute the man in his white Ferrari and his many Yeezy shoes. With high hopes for his chances at the Masters. And hopes he can get himself a better nickname than Asia’s John Daly.
