NOH EARNS SPECIAL INVITATION TO PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

Kuala Lumpur, August 3, 2010: Korea’s Noh Seung-yul, the current Asian Tour Order of Merit, has received a special invitation to compete in next week’s PGA Championship, the year’s final Major.

The 19-year-old was invited along with Spaniard Gonzalo-Fernandez Castano and England’s Simon Khan for the event which will be played at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin from August 12-15.

It will be Noh’s third appearance in a Major as he qualified and played in all four rounds at the US Open in June but missed the halfway cut at the British Open last month.

“It’s an honour to be invited,” Noh told Yonhap News Agency.

His rise has been meteoric since he broke through on the Asian Tour in 2007, which he was named Rookie of the Year. He won the Midea China Classic then and subsequently grew in stature where he claimed a second title at the Maybank Malaysian Open in March by defeating countryman K.J. Choi by one stroke.

Other Asian Tour members who are in next week’s PGA Championship include title holder Y.E. Yang of Korea, Choi, Thai star Thongchai Jaidee, China’s Liang Wen-chong, Japan’s Tetsuji Hiratsuka and honorary member Vijay Singh of Fiji.