The 2025 Moutai Singapore Open delivered the kind of drama the Asian Tour hoped for when it elevated the event into the International Series.
Played from November 6–9 at the historic Singapore Island Country Club (SICC), the US$2 million tournament became a decisive battleground in the race for the 2026 LIV Golf League exemptions. In the end, it produced a career-defining moment for Japan’s Yosuke Asaji, while Indian golfer Ajeetesh Sandhu walked away with a steady but limited return.
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The Singapore Open has long been part of Asian golf’s identity, and its 2025 edition marked a symbolic homecoming. Hosted at SICC the venue that staged the first edition in 1961 the event merged heritage with modern ambition. The New Course, where Japan’s Kesahiko Uchida last lifted the trophy in 1976, again proved fertile ground for Japanese success nearly 50 years later.
The tournament’s inclusion in the International Series elevated its importance. Occupying the penultimate spot in the series, it offered crucial ranking points toward two automatic LIV Golf League berths for 2026 spots that would transform careers. With a field featuring established Asian Tour stars and LIV notables like Talor Gooch, Paul Casey, and Thomas Pieters, the stakes were unmistakably high.
The International Series has broadened the Asian Tour’s competitive ecosystem, offering players a direct, performance-based pathway into the global LIV Golf League. The Singapore Open amplified this system dramatically when two of the season’s biggest names Scott Vincent and Kazuki Higa unexpectedly missed the cut. Their early exits cracked the rankings wide open, turning the event into a high-leverage opportunity for contenders chasing the LIV exemptions.
This volatility proved crucial, allowing a player like Yosuke Asaji already in good form but outside the top spots—to vault himself into the center of the conversation.
Yosuke Asaji: Precision, Patience, and Perfect Timing
Asaji’s triumph was built on disciplined scoring and expert reading of SICC’s green complexes. His four-round card of 67, 70, 65, and 67 totaled 19-under-par, but it was his third round a brilliant 65 that pushed him firmly into contention. On the final day, he attacked early, rattling off five birdies in his opening stretch and applying pressure on the leaderboard. Still, the defining moment came on the 18th green during regulation. Asaji faced a testing 10-foot left-to-right birdie putt, one that demanded touch and nerve. He drained it, setting the clubhouse target at 19-under. Moments later, Korea’s Jeunghun Wang matched it with an almost identical putt of his own, sending the event into a sudden-death playoff.
On the playoff’s par-five 18th, the contrast in strategies was stark. Wang took on the green in two, only to find the water hazard. Asaji, disciplined and composed, laid up, wedged close, and rolled in a 6-footer for birdie and the victory. It was his first overseas win, and one that immediately shifted the landscape of his career.
A Win With Massive Strategic Consequences
Asaji’s reward extended far beyond the US$360,000 winner’s cheque. The victory delivered a massive boost in ranking points, lifting him to 2nd place in the International Series Rankings, directly into a provisional LIV Golf exemption slot. In addition, he jumped to 5th on the Asian Tour Order of Merit, cementing his status among the continent’s most upward-trending players.
Given that the top two players in the International Series (not already exempt) earn LIV berths, Asaji now enters the season finale the PIF Saudi International in a prime position. But the margins remain thin. Players like Miguel Tabuena and Wang, both within striking distance, will challenge aggressively. For Asaji, the pressure now shifts from chasing the opportunity to defending it.
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On the Indian front, Ajeetesh Sandhu produced a stable yet unspectacular week. His four rounds of 70, 69, 70, and 70 added up to 9-under-par and a T-37 finish enough to make the cut but far from leaderboard impact. Sandhu’s week was marked by consistency: he was the only Indian to survive into the weekend as players like Gaganjeet Bhullar and Viraj Madappa missed the cut by a single stroke. Sandhu’s R3 performance offered flashes of momentum five birdies that elevated him 14 places up the board but three bogeys prevented a true charge.
His $13,016 earnings and 24.52 OOM points nudged him forward, but only modestly. His season-long challenge remains the same: he is hovering near 81st on the Order of Merit, needing a strong late push to secure his Asian Tour card for 2026.
For a player with his experience and pedigree, the missing ingredient remains a breakthrough low round that can vault him into top-10 territory at elevated events like these. Without that, his season risks ending in a struggle for exemption rather than contention.
The 2025 Moutai Singapore Open successfully delivered on the International Series’ promise: pressure, volatility, and career-altering opportunity. Asaji seized the moment with a masterclass in temperament and execution, positioning himself on the doorstep of a LIV Golf debut. Sandhu, meanwhile, continued to grind but must find sharper scoring edges in the closing weeks of the season.
With only the Saudi finale left, the race for LIV exemptions and the battle for season cards enters its most intense phase yet.
