Amateur competitors still lead the men's group Lexus Challenge 2023
In the opening round, Khanh Hung hit 68 strokes - four birdies, one bogey in the first half - thereby taking the top of the table, at -3. At that time, T2 reached -2, including Truong Chi Quan, Nguyen Tuan Kiet and 16-year-old defending champion Nguyen Anh Minh, also amateur.
In the second round on February 22, Khanh Hung also 68 strokes - three birdies, one eagle and two bogeys divided equally for each half of the field while Chi Quan and Anh Minh both closed the game at 72 strokes, three less than Tuan Kiet. With that result, Khanh Hung went up to -6, Chi Quan and Anh Minh were still T2 but down to -1, and Tuan Kiet ranked eighth with a score of +2.
This position is just behind the four players in T4 (+1), including first-time Lexus Challenge champion Tran Le Duy Nhat. The award has just recorded Nguyen Huu Quyet scoring a hole-in-one at the 15th hole with no prize and thanks to that, he ranked 10th (+4).
At the 2019 launch, the Lexus Challenge only had a male group, then postponed for two years because of Covid-19.
In the year of 2022 re-export, the tournament takes place on Champion par72 of Trang An Golf & Country Club, adding a women's group with a bonus fund of 100 million VND. At that time, Nguyen Thao My finished first at +6, Khanh Hung shared the runner-up with Chi Quan and Anh Minh at the age of 15 established a +3 victory. With that result, Anh Minh became the first and youngest amateur to own a cup in the history of professional golf in Vietnam.
In the 2023 match, Thao My led the first two rounds continuously, but the score was from -1 to +5 while T2 was +7, with Lina Kim and Ngo Bao Nghi.
The list of competitions on The Bluffs par71 in Xuyen Moc this year has 109 men and 17 women. Halfway through, the male cut is at +15 according to the principle of taking the top or T50, the female filter point when taking the top or T12, at +36. Accordingly, the male branch currently has 51 competitors to compete for a prize fund of 1.8 billion VND, of which the champion receives 324 million VND. The female branch has 12 players to compete for the 200 million dong fund with the first prize of 60 million dong.
VGA Tour is established and managed by the Vietnam Golf Association (VGA), operating from March 2022, with five tournaments for the opening season, in which the Lexus Challenge is at the top of the calendar. This year, the event also holds the leading position in the program, then six tournaments, including the grand final of the Tour Championship in December. The tournaments on the VGA Tour are all four-round stroke play.
