Dyson sets sights on Hero Honda Masters

Simon Dyson, the exciting young Yorkshireman who has set ablaze the Asian PGA Tour with his amazing pyrotechniques on the course this season, is now aiming for his third title of the year during the Hero Honda Masters 2000, which begins at the DLF Golf & Country Club, Gurgaon, from Thursday, November 2.

The 22-year-old is in third place in the Asian PGA Tour Order of Merit following his victories in the Macau Open and the Volvo China Open, with earnings of $-134,656 from 12 events in his rookie year. He is approximately $27,000 behind the current leader Yeh Wei-tze of Taiwan and $-7,000 less than Asia's No 2 Jyoti Randhawa of India.

Speaking from the Windmill Park Golf Club in Thailand after shooting a bogey-free round of eight-under 64 on the second day of the Lexus International, Dyson said: "I am looking forward to the Hero Honda Masters. It is going to be a very important week for me as I have a good chance of topping the Order of Merit during the week. I have a good feeling as I did well in India during my first tournament," said Dyson, who shot into prominence when he submitted a six-under 66 card on the first day of the 2000 Wills Indian Open, which was played in March this year. Dyson finally finished 15th that week with a four-day tally of nine-under 279.

The Hero Honda Masters assumes greater significance for Dyson as he is planning to take a few weeks off from the Asian PGA Tour after the tournament.

"I am playing the final stage of the European PGA Tour Qualifying School and will thus miss a few events on the Asian PGA Tour. I need to finish high in the Hero Honda Masters to fulfill my desire of finishing on top of the Order of Merit," said Dyson, who made it to the Asian PGA Tour after finishing second in this year's Q-School event.

"Before I was leaving for India, people told me about Delhi belly and all such things. But I enjoyed my stay and faced no such problems," added Dyson.

The Hero Honda Masters is from November 2 and the star attraction will be the presence of the top four players in the Asian PGA Tour Order of Merit - Yeh, Randhawa, Dyson and Craig Kamps of South Africa. The $-200,000 tournament offers a winner's cheque of $-33,200.

The other Order of Merit top-10 players in the fray are No 6 Prayad Marksaeng of Thailand, who has won the Casino Filipino Open this season; No 7 South African James Kingston, winner of London Myanmar Open and Ericsson Classic this season and No 10 Andrew Pitts of the United States.

The Hero Honda Masters will feature seven winners on the Tour this season who have won nine events out of 14 tournaments held so far. Dyson and Kingston are two-time winners, while the others are Soushi Tajima of Japan (Q-School); Yeh Wei-tze (Malaysian Open); Marksaeng (Casino Filipino Open); Randhawa (Wills Indian Open) and Stephen Lindskog of Sweden (Volvo Masters of Malaysia).