For the rest of his playing life and maybe his life life, Sadom Kaewkanjana, a 27-year-old touring pro from Thailand, is likely to known as the golfing monk. Beyond that, no one can say. Not even a monk.
Just the idea of a golfing monk is a gift to the fantasy life of a million Western golfers, at least those of us shaped by Carl Spackler from Caddyshack, Shivas Irons from Golf in the Kingdom and Tida Woods from The Chosen One. On this unlikely topic, survey says this is the leading FAQ: This golfing monk, does he have the secret — and will he give it up?
Patience, gathered grasshoppers. And while we’re at it, and because many of us here are likely Westerners, hardwired for short and easy, your correspondent is duty-bound to note that Sadom was a two-week monk, in 2023, dropping out of his chasing-birdies life for a fortnight in a remote, rural Buddhist temple in Thailand, doing monkish things. (Shaving his head, wearing a robe, eating only what’s offered, meditating, doing menial tasks.) It’s a ritual millions of Thai men in their 20s follow, a custom that (you could say) combines the born-again Baptismal plunge and going on a yoga retreat in the Arizona desert, though this fortnight-as-a-monk tradition is vastly older.
“For two weeks, you don’t touch a club,” Sadom’s girlfriend, Jaravee Boonchant, said to a fellow gallery member, late Friday evening, in the gloaming. She was standing high on a Royal Portrush dune during the second round of the Open Championship. Jaravee is a professional golfer from Thailand, 26, who studied statistics at Duke, where she was a star golfer. Her English is perfect.
Her boyfriend’s English is more limited. He turned pro after high school and is loaded with game. Sadom played in his first Open in 2022, at the Old Course, and finished in a tie for 11th. He has won three national championships, in Thailand in 2021, in Singapore in 2022 and in Korea in 2025. He and Jaravee met at a tournament where men and women both competed.
On Friday, Jaravee was dressed in Polo (baseball cap), Anew (hoodie), adidas (tennis shoes) and Maison (jeans). Her outfit was as stylish as her boyfriend’s, representing all the colors in the spectrum from white to gray, was bland. Their golf is dissimilar, too. “I hit a draw shot, and he hits a fade,” Jaravee said. The air was cooling, the wind was dying, the gulls were squawking. “I have a temper on the course and Sadom is always calm. Not always always, but mostly always.”
You could see that in his Friday round, as a rainy-sunny-cloud afternoon drifted into a dank night. Sadom shot a first-round 68, three under par, which generated some passing excitement for (to use some press-tent shorthand) the monk. It helped that he finished early. At the end of Thursday, Sadom was only one shot out of the lead.
But on Friday, last group off at 4:16 p.m., he went out in 38 and started his back nine bogey, double bogey, bogey. Now he was playing to make the cut, and after a bogey on 15 the chances of that happening were pretty much over. Could you see even a hint of despair in Sadom’s face or in his body language? You could not. He made a bogey on the last for 79. The cut was 143, one over par. Sadom’s two-day total was 147.
It was 9:30 p.m. when he shook hands with his two playing partners and their caddies. Sunday night’s last finishers will play before packed grandstands but on Friday night there maybe 20 spectators on hand as the day wrapped. Many more people were gathering on a nearby beach for a modest fireworks display.
Before leaving — with Jaravee acting as his animated translator, and with his delightful agent, Krishna Iskandar, standing a respectful give-‘em-space distance away — Sadom sat in a swivel chair for 10 minutes or so and talked about his experience as (one last time?) the lone golfing monk in this 153rd Open. (At least, the closest thing to it.) He was not, one learned, familiar with Caddyshack, Golf in the Kingdom or the third season of The White Lotus, for that matter, which is set in Thailand. He said he did see Buddhist principles at work in Tiger’s play, in his intense focus. Sadom made no claim to possessing the key to the chamber where golf’s secrets are stored, but one theme did emerge, over the course of the brief Friday-night discourse, about how he approaches the game: The ball is still. The mind must be, too.
If Sadom was hungry or tired or disappointed, you could not tell. He returned to his rental house in Portrush, with a plan to make dinner.
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