{"id":435844,"date":"2025-07-17T21:40:52","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T21:40:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/?p=435844"},"modified":"2025-07-17T21:40:52","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T21:40:52","slug":"sadom-kaewkanjana-the-monk-at-the-open-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/sadom-kaewkanjana-the-monk-at-the-open-championship\/","title":{"rendered":"Sadom Kaewkanjana: The Monk At The Open Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the Open Championship in full swing<\/a> this week, it is important to take a look at the players who are there and explore their stories.\u00a0 The usual pros are on the field, like Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, and Matt Fitzpatrick.\u00a0 There are also a few players with a special story.\u00a0 Ryan Peake, who had turned his life around after a prison sentence, is on the field.\u00a0 There is also Aldritch Potgieter, a star rookie who had his first PGA win at the Rocket Classic<\/a>.\u00a0 Then there is Sadom Kaewkanjana, a pro player who lived as a Buddhist monk and was officially ordained<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Who Is Sadom Kaewkanjana?<\/span><\/h2>\n

Sadom Kaewkanjana was previously a pro golfer with the Asian Tour.\u00a0 He has won three times on the Asian Tour and five times on the Thailand Golf Tour, as well as dipping into the majors whenever he could.\u00a0 During its inaugural season, he even played on LIV Golf.\u00a0 In 2022, Kaewkanjan managed to finish in 11th during the Open at the oldest golf course, St. Andrews<\/a>, before he took a step back from golf.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kaewkanjana As A Monk<\/span><\/h2>\n

After the 2022 Open, Kaewkanjana became a Buddhist monk and was officially ordained as such.\u00a0 According to him, in a 2023 interview, it was to repay his parents.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was ordained because I wanted to return the greatest merit and repay my parents.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

After Kaewkanjana was ordained, he was able to improve his golf game.\u00a0 According to him, the isolation and the calm atmosphere helped him improve his focus.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was cut off from the rest of the world when I was ordained,” he added. “That made me feel more calm. I was able to concentrate more, which will help me improve my game of golf.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

With his skill and his record, Kaewkanjana was able to get through the qualifying series in the Kolon Korea Open in May.\u00a0 There, he managed to get himself a spot in The Open, where he is now playing.<\/span><\/p>\n

At The Open<\/span><\/h2>\n

After being away from golf, Kaewkanjana\u2019s time spent practicing and training while being a monk is paying off.\u00a0 He started out strong with 3 under 33 in the first round.\u00a0 At the time of writing, he is in the top ten.\u00a0 Currently T6 on the leaderboard and is unwavering in this position.\u00a0 Kaewkanjana is more than likely to make the cut, especially if the second round is anything like the first.\u00a0 Despite spending time away from the sport, he is proving that he iss still more than capable of competing with the best in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kaewkanjana Going Forward<\/span><\/h2>\n

The Open Championship for 2025 is going to be a very memorable event for anyone talking about Kaewkanjana.\u00a0 He is in the top ten right out of the gate, he is getting a lot of attention for it, and his story before the major is something that will come up in trivia for a long time now.\u00a0 He may not be in the top 100 in the OWGR, but after this performance alone, it is very easy to see him taking a path to claim a space there.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit:\u00a0 \u00a9 John David Mercer-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the Open Championship in full swing this week, it is important to take a look at the players who are there and explore their stories.\u00a0 The usual pros are on the field, like Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, and Matt Fitzpatrick.\u00a0 There are also a few players with a special story.\u00a0 Ryan Peake, who had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5429,"featured_media":435845,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,246,200,19],"tags":[8147,83],"class_list":["post-435844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-golf-news","category-liv-golf","category-pga","tag-sadom-kaewkanjana","tag-the-open-championship"],"modified_by":"Taylor Craig","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435844"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":435848,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435844\/revisions\/435848"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}