The PDGA Asia Tour moved about nine degrees in latitude closer to the equator this week, from the cooler climes of the Taipei winter to the warmth and humidity in the lush grounds of the Lakewood Country Club, twenty five miles east of Bangkok, for the Siam Open 2026.

Charlotte NC’s Clay Edwards and Jakub Semerad from Czechia took first and second place in MPO, while Chinese Tapei’s Chia-Fang Chen backed up her FPO victory in the first leg of the tour with a dominant 20 stroke win here.

Full Results: Siam Open 2026 - PDGA Asia Tour Event #2 »

Clay Edwards wins the 2026 Siam Open. Photos: Kingsley Flett

The relationship between disc golf and Lakewood is a new one. The sport was introduced on the links layout in 2024 and then moved to the country club in Christmas of 2025. The product of this move has been one of the most beautiful and instantly iconic disc golf courses in the world. Holes like the peninsular hole, the snake hole and the island hole have the feel of classics that have been there for twenty years, not just a few weeks. If this property develops as planned, it will become a must play destination for anyone traveling in the region and hopefully the host for many more Siam Opens.

Plenty of new faces were seen warming up by the lake in the genteel country club surrounds on the practice days. As the PDGA Asian Tour takes shape, some patterns are emerging. There’s the small crew of hard core tourers doing all seven events: like Tucson AZ’s Steven Miller - MP40 winner in both tournaments so far, Joey Bruno from Denver NC who has placed top ten in MPO in both events and currently leads the MPO tour standings, and John Roe from Fairbanks Alaska who is currently second in the MA60 standings. There is the East Asian Crew, like current FPO leader Chia-Fang Chen, who are sticking mainly to Chinese Tapei, Okinawa and the tour championship in Shanghai. Then, in Bangkok, among the many Thai locals, we saw the influx of the players who are just here for the Thailand leg: three tournaments close together and linked by short internal flights in the same country. Semerád and Edwards are the most notable of these and both traveling to Asia for the first time.

ICYMI: Announcing the 2026 PDGA Asia Tour Series »

“It’s definitely different,” said Semerád before the tournament. “It’s actually hard to get some good practice back home because it’s freezing and snowing, so this is like a perfect wintertime practice for me. I hope this will showcase during the season also.“

Jakub Semerad

Although coming into the tour as the highest rated player and arguably the most credentialed with two DGPT podium finishes and four top ten placements, Semerád was taking nothing for granted.  When asked about his chances for a win, Jacob said “We will see. A win would be nice, but Clay Edwards is here and he could always bring his A-game.”

His A-game was indeed what Edwards brought for round one. Clay had a single bogey, ten birdies and two eagles on his way to a 13-under-par 51 and a two stroke lead over Tomi Lehtonen, a Finn now based on the Thai island of Koh Mak. “It’s a super fun course,” said Edwards. “I wouldn’t say it’s easy necessarily, to get birdies on a lot of the holes. There’s just not a lot of OB’s or punishment for miscued drives, or even putts, on some of the holes. I think that’s why we saw a lot of low scores. But I just want to go out and do the same thing I did yesterday - just know that every hole is right there, not try to push too much, not do anything crazy, just be patient and try to let the birdies come to me.”

Standings & Schedule: 2026 PDGA Asia Tour »  

Edward’s 11-under-par second round didn’t quite match his first, but it was enough to clear out to a decisive five stroke lead over Semerád, as Lehtonen dropped back to a share of third place with England’s Ben Holding. On the windy final day, Edwards maintained the five stroke lead, despite a few shaky moments in the final nine.

“I felt like if I got off to a good start that I could seal the deal,” Edwards said. “Which I felt like I did, but everyone else on the card was playing really well. They definitely made it tight. After missing the mando on hole 13 I was only leading by three. I realised I needed to lock back in after that.”

After Semerad’s bogey on hole 15 and a two stroke swing, Edward’s lead was safe and he held it all the way to the finish. “That (hole 15) was a make or break hole,” Edwards said. “I saw some big numbers there in round one. After that, the stress slowed down a bit. But they made it tough today for sure.”

In the mini battle of the ‘tour within the tour’ it is 1-0 for Ewards over Semerád. It’ll be interesting to see who comes out the winner between these two good friends after Chiang Mai.

Chia-Fang Chen

There was no such stress for Chia-Fang Chen in FPO however. She took a nine stroke lead into the final round and stretched it to 20 strokes at the finish. After admitting that she has had to overcome some nerves while playing big tournaments in recent times, this result, on the back of her win in the Asia Open, shows that Chen just might have put that problem to bed.

“I wasn’t very confident with my putting in the Asia Open,” Chen said. “But now my putting is at 70% and I’m very happy about that. Today I felt a little bit of nerves in the first three holes, but apart from that everything worked according to plan . Because it’s a golf course it suited my drive because I can throw far. As long as my drive is good, I can score well on a course like this.”

Chen’s final round was the only one she truly dominated though. In round one she had company with Colorado’s Margaret Patterson. Patterson is familiar in these parts because of time spent living in Hong Kong – in fact she represented Hong Kong as recently as November 2024 in the World Team Championships in Western Australia.

“I had a much better than expected first round,” said Patterson, of her 8-under-par 59 that had her only two strokes behind Chen. “Then I felt that I was never able to live up to this new standard on rounds two and three. I was struggling, and never found my putt, which is usually a strength, for the whole tournament.  But it was a great battle with Echo (Li) and with Su Mei surging - a couple more holes and anything could have happened.”

Echo Li

It was Li, originally from China but now based in New Zealand, who took over the pacing of Chen in the second round. Despite starting with a double bogey, Li shot 7-under-par, to Chen’s10-under, to move into second place, one clear of Patterson.

“The second round I felt like a good practice round with good energy and focus, “said Li.  “I always seem to be nervous on the first hole though.”

As Chen kept her unrelenting pace in the final round, the battle for second heated up, with Li and Patterson swapping one stroke leads throughout. Li missed a tap in par-save on hole 16 which would have put her ahead by one. Afterwards she admitted to struggling in the final round. “Last round felt a bit off from the beginning,” Li said. “The front nine was ok except one mistake. But the back nine, somehow my focus wasn’t the same as the previous two rounds. I kept snacking but that didn’t seem to make the difference. The wind was enough for me to think about drives and putts. I have practiced enough in the wind, but I still didn’t have the same commitment.”

Ultimately it was Patterson’s mid-range bullseye hit on the 190 foot, hole 17 for birdie that made the difference. Margaret was able to finish in second place, one stroke clear of Li and two strokes clear of Tapei’s Su Mei Yang, who charged home with a 6-under-par final round.

The FPO tournament belonged to Chen though, who averaged a 951 rating on her way to the 20 stroke win. Chen leaves the tour for a while now, giving some other FPO players a chance to notch some wins; she’ll rejoin for the final two legs in Okinawa and Shanghai.

The second tournament of the 2026 PDGA Asia Tour will leave lasting memories of the Lakewood Course for all who played it. All will recall the large temple with its white spires that reflected in the lake as the backdrop to many putts on holes 9, 10 and 11. The name of that temple? – ‘The Institute of Mental Power’.

Time to harness some of that power for the next stop on the tour, on the island of Koh Samui for the Samui Swine.