Anthony Kang

Anthony Kang, 47, of South Korea will co-host the 2020 United States Open Championship with his fellow professional golfer Daniel Chopra, 46, of Sweden and former professional cricketer Jason de la Peña, 47, of England live on FOX Sports 2 from September 18-21, 2020. In the Philippines, it will be available on Cignal‘s channel 265 and SkyCable channel 32 (SD) and channel 254 (HD).

On September 15, 2020, I had the opportunity to interview Kang, Chopra and de la Peña via Zoom. I asked the Korean-American golfer about his thoughts on the current crop of Asian talent in the U.S. Open.

“I think not only with the Asians in the US Open but I think as time progresses, there are more Asian crop, Asian talents coming out,” Kang shared. He added that there is good representation from established Asian names such as Hideki Matsuyama, 28, of Japan and from younger Asian players such as his fellow South Korean golfers Im Sung Jae, 22, and Kim Si Woo, 25, in the 2020 U.S. Open.

Including Im and Kim, South Korea has four players in the tournament. The other two are An Byeong Hun and Kang Sung Hoon.

Japan has four players, as well. They are Matsuyama, Ryo Ishikawa, Shugo Imahira and Takumi Kanaya.

A total of 27 countries from six continents are represented in the 2020 U.S. Open, which will take place at the Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, New York, USA from September 17–20, 2020. Four of them are from Asia namely Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.

Chun An Yu, 22, is the sole representative of Taiwan while Jazz Janewattananond, 24, solely represents Thailand. Some of the 67 players from the U.S. are of Asian descent such as Collin Morikawa, Kurt Kitayama, Brandon Wu and John Pak.

“Unfortunately, right now, there isn’t really a dominant Asian player,” Kang commented. “But eventually as a pool of Asian players get bigger, then yeah, the number starts to shift towards (a place) where the more nationalities, more Asian nationalities you have in the field, the higher the chances of wonderful guys coming through so I think we’re moving to the correct process.”

Born in South Korea on November 30, 1972, Kang was 10 years old when he moved to the U.S. He attended Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon, USA.

As a golfer, Kang turned professional in 1996 and has been a member of the Asian Tour since 1998. He has three Asian Tour wins and one European Tour win.