Byeong Hun An believes he belongs in the upper echelons of the Official World Golf Rankings after surging into contention on home soil at the Genesis Championship.
The 32-year-old was a huge drawcard for the home fans alongside compatriot Tom Kim, both of whom recently represented South Korea at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, when he teed up at Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea on Thursday.
He made a fast start thanks to a hat-trick of birdies from the second before dropping his first shot of the day at the sixth.
An immediately picked it back up at the seventh, only to bogey the ninth to reach the turn in 34. He grinded his way through the back nine before birdieing the 14th, which sparked a brace of birdies from the 16th to sit one adrift of leader Ivan Cantero at five under.
An, who is ranked 36th in the world, admitted this is the "best year so far in my career" and believes he can improve further.
"It was special, I played pretty good," An said. "Some iffy swings, I maybe had two of those, but other than that I hit a lot of fairways and hit some great shots, so quite happy with five under.
"It was pretty tricky, it has a generous fairway, but the course was very soft so the ball is not flying as far, it just has very tricky greens, so you need to play the right shots and be really accurate. I feel I did that pretty good for 16 holes, apart for two of them, but I feel it is a second shot golf course.
"I feel like you feel where you are at. Three years ago I was 300th player in the world and now I feel like I am in the top 30-40 players in the world.
"I didn’t do much different, I had a bit of a swing change, which is always a hard kind of spell and I had a few iffy swings here and there, and I have worked pretty hard.
"I’m sure there are guys who have worked harder than me but compared to ten years ago, I feel like I am working it harder and taking care of myself a bit better, and everything is coming along.
"I had a pretty decent year last year, and this year has been my best year so far in my career, so hopefully I can get a little bit better next year."
