NEWPORT BEACH — Casual golf fans might not be familiar with his name or his game, but a case could be made that Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee is the Tiger Woods of the Asian Tour.
Tiger is the PGA Tour’s all-time leading money winner with nearly $121 million in prize money and 82 titles in tour-sanctioned events. Jaidee, 54, is the Singapore-based Asian Tour’s leading money winner with $5.4 million in career earnings and 13 victories on that tour.
Apples and oranges, certainly, but that distinction might make Jaidee the best professional golfer you’ve never heard of. Now playing on PGA Tour Champions, Jaidee has a chance to make a name for himself over the weekend in the Hoag Classic at Newport Beach Country Club if he maintains his impeccable ball-striking.
Playing in the tournament’s second group before the galleries swelled to watch the marquee names in the field, Jaidee fired a 9-under-par 62 in Friday’s opening round that was good enough for a one-shot lead over World Golf Hall of Famer Padraig Harrington (8-under 63) and Paul Broadhurst (63). Top rounds by local pros were a 3-under 68 by Paul Goydos of Coto de Caza (T15) and a 2-under 69 by Fred Couples of Corona del Mar (T28).
Jaidee tied his career-low round on PGA Tour Champions on the strength of his pinpoint iron play, hitting all 18 greens in regulation and flirting with a possible 59 until a 3-putt lip-out bogey on No. 16 and a 3-putt par on No. 18 also prevented him from matching the tournament and course record of 60 shared by Tom Purtzer, Nick Price and Duffy Waldorf.
“That’s OK, I’m not upset,” a smiling Jaidee said after his memorable round. “It’s pretty good to be 9-under par today.”
Jaidee’s career day requires another asterisk; he said he’s playing with an aching back because of compressed vertebrae that have periodically bothered him since 2008 and now necessitate twice-daily physical therapy sessions.
What makes his story even more interesting is that Jaidee, who grew up playing soccer in Thailand, didn’t take up golf until 16 and didn’t turn pro until age 30 – after a four-year stint in the Royal Thai Army as a paratrooper in special forces.
How can you feel pressure trying to make birdie putts when you’ve jumped out of planes at night strapped with heavy weaponry during war-time training?
“The golf is completely different than jumping out of a plane,” Jaidee said. “The golf is not dangerous; the paratrooper (duty) is dangerous. … The (war) training is very hard, but it’s good for me … to make me mentally ready. That’s why golf is so easy (by comparison); I don’t care about anything.
“But if you’re training hard (in the military) and you get back to playing golf, it’s so easy because our training is so hard.”
Jaidee made it look easy on Friday, playing the first four holes in 4-under par (birdie on No. 1, eagle on No. 3, birdie on No. 4) and closing out the front nine with three consecutive birdies to make the turn at 7-under 28. On the back nine, he birdied Nos. 12, 14 and 15 to get to 10-under with three holes to play.
Was he thinking about 59?
Conceding that two of the final three holes are “not very difficult,” Jaidee knew it was possible. But he 3-putted from 25 feet on the par-4 16th – his 4-foot par putt went all the way around the edge of the cup before jumping out for his only bogey of the day – and he missed a birdie putt from a similar length on the par-3 17th.
Even so, he went to the reachable par-5 18th knowing he could finish at 10-under with a birdie or tie the course record with an eagle.
After his worst tee shot of the day wound up 40 yards left of the fairway in the rough on the adjacent 10th hole, he followed up with his best approach shot of the day, hooking a 3-wood from 245 yards around the grandstand and watching it scoot up onto the front of the green. But his 55-foot eagle attempt raced six feet past, and he missed the birdie attempt to settle for a disappointing par.
With rainy and windy weather in the forecast on Saturday, Jaidee said he just wants to keep playing well.
“Hopefully, we keep performing like this,” said Jaidee, a two-time winner on PGA Tour Champions. “You never know.”