June 20, 2010 - This year’s British Amateur Championship, played at Muirfield and North Berwick, Scotland from June 14-19, has produced the first Asian winner of the event in its 125-year history.

The twenty year old winner (ProV1x, Titleist 909D3 driver, 909 F2 Fairway, 710 AP2 Irons, Vokey Design CC wedges) produced a superb display of putting around the Muirfield links to take the title 5 & 4 with at birdie at the 32nd hole, his tenth of the day.

The reigning Riversdale Cup Champion (Australia) reached the half-way stage two holes ahead of his 21-year-old Scottish opponent having let an early two-hole advantage of his own slip away. For the first four holes of the afternoon round, the scores remained the same, before the winner made the telling move. He holed birdie putts of 30 feet, 12 feet and 18 feet on the par-five fifth, par-four sixth and par-three seventh respectively to build a five-hole lead that would prove insurmountable.

“I’ve never putted better than that,” said the Korean born winner. “I was quite nervous all week, especially before today. But I came here this week really wanting to win. I wanted this title so badly.”

Courtesy of his victory, the current world amateur number 10, who plays his golf in Australia representing Waverley Golf Club in Victoria, earns an exemption into the 150th Anniversary Open Championship and an invitation to the 2011 Masters Tournament.

“I hoped that I was going to win the Amateur and come back for The Open because I’ve been watching The Open on TV every year since 2002. That was the first time I’d ever watched it,” he said. “I really wanted to know what it was like to play out of knee-high rough!” “I always hoped that my first Major would be The Open. Now I can play at St Andrews. It means everything. It’s a dream come true.”

The winner becomes the third Korean amateur to earn a place at St Andrews, the others securing their Open spots via International Final Qualifying – Asia earlier in the year, and the 2009 US Amateur Championship.