KUALA LUMPUR - March 1, 2005 – Thongchai Jaidee's third place finish at the Myanmar Open has widened his lead at the top of the Asian Tour Order of Merit.
The Thai, last year's Asian number one, has now accumulated US$212,860 from three tournaments this season with Japan's Kiyoshi Miyazato lying in second place on US$193,423 following his win in last December's Okinawa Open.
India's Jyoti Randhawa is third on US$140,545, thanks largely to his second place outing at the Carlsberg Malaysian Open two weeks ago. Thongchai won the Malaysian title and subsequently finished well up on the leaderboard in Yangon on Sunday to pick up US$11,200.
The result also saw Thongchai move up a notch to 57th place on the Official World Golf Ranking as he continues his push for a US Masters slot in April, which requires him to be inside the top-50 a week prior to the Masters.
Myanmar Open champion Scott Strange of Australia jumped into 10th place on the latest money ranking on the Asian Tour with US$32,300, the winning cheque in Yangon.
Canadian Rick Gibson, last week's runner-up, moved into ninth place on the money list with a total haul of US$37,298. India's Ashok Kumar, who finished tied third alongside Thongchai in Myanmar, is now ranked 35th on the merit list.
The Asian Tour moves to Phuket this week for the US$500,000 Thai Airways International Thailand Open at Blue Canyon Golf and Country Club where Thai veteran Boonchu Ruangkit is the defending champion.
Top-20 Asian Tour Order of Merit (US$)
Pos Player Order of Merit
1. Thongchai JAIDEE (THA) 212,860
2. Kiyoshi MIYAZATO (JPN) 193,423
3. Jyoti RANDHAWA (IND) 140,545
4. Scott BARR (AUS) 74,337
5. LIANG Wen-chong (CHN) 56,318
6. Jeev Milkha SINGH (IND) 56,287
7. Charlie WI (KOR) 52,385
8. Prom MEESAWAT (THA) 39,325
9. Rick GIBSON (CAN) 37,298
10. Scott STRANGE (AUS) 32,300
11. Thaworn WIRATCHANT (THA) 30,658
12. MO Joong-kyung (KOR) 30,548
13. Terry PILKADARIS (AUS) 27,950
14. Angelo QUE (PHI) 27,054
15. Simon YATES (SCO) 26,957
16. James KINGSTON (RSA) 24,806
17. WANG Ter-chang (TPE) 22,126
18. Danny CHIA (MAS) 22,093
19. Prayad MARKSAENG (THA) 21,730
20. Simon DYSON (ENG) 20,161
