Korean golfer An aiming to overtake Olympian parents

South Korea's Byeong Hun An is aiming to go one better than his parents if he qualifies for August's Olympic golf tournament in Brazil.

An’s father Ahn Jae-Hyung won a bronze medal in table tennis at the Seoul games in 1988 and his mother Jiao Zhimin won a silver in the same pursuit.

An is back at Wentworth this week to defend the European PGA Championship title he won last season and give another boost to his Olympic ambitions.

He is currently ranked 26th in the world – he was 132nd when he stunned European golf 12 months ago and a win here would book his ticket for Rio de Janeiro as one of the two highest ranked South Koreans.

“I'd love to play in the Olympics. They played it. They got silver and bronze medal. I've got to try to get gold then,” An told reporters at Wentworth ahead of Thursday’s start to the tournament. 

“Just playing in it is really special for me. So I'll try to try my best to try to make the team.”

An surged up the world rankings on the back of last season's victory and he eclipsed his main goal of getting into the top 50 by the end of last year so he could play in all the majors.

A strong finish to the season saw him break into that elite group and An finished up by being named Rookie of the Year by the European Tour.

He has had two top-5s on the European Tour this season – in Abu Dhabi and Dubai – and missed out in a play-off to Brian Stuard in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans recently.

And An admits his prediction last year that winning one of Europe’s premier events was a life-changer had come true.      

The 24-year-old added: “I'm 26th in the world. That's a lot of change from last year because before this event, I was 133rd or something like that.

“So that's a big change, and I got to play all the majors, the Masters this year, and all three majors last year. That's a big change in my life, and now I have a chance to play on the PGA Tour, and basically I got it for this year.       

“It got me into a lot of events and boosted my confidence that I could compete and got me good results in The Final Series last year. It gave me good confidence and definitely changed it a lot when I look back.

“My goal was to try to get Top 50 in the world in last year and try to get me into all the majors this year. Somehow I just kept the momentum going. It definitely started last year after this event,”

An  starts the defence of his crown on Thursday when he plays with Ireland’s Shane Lowry and Italian Francesco Molinari.

Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose are missing from the field through choice and injury respectively but Masters champion Danny Willett is here and he will play the first two rounds with another Korean, Soomin Lee, and France’s Victor Dubuisson.
Source :AFP