Golf has taken John Catlin all over the world.
The American grinded his way up the pro ranks from PGA Tour Canada to the Asian Development Tour before winning the Asian Tour’s Player of the Year honors and earning a DP World Tour card in 2018. Catlin won three times on the DP World Tour in 2020 and 2021. He’s played in four Open Championships and two PGA Championships. He joined LIV Golf as a fill-in player in 2024 and played a handful of tournaments for the rebel league in each of the past three seasons.
John Catlin has gone all around the world chasing his golf dreams. He has shot a 59 in Macau, made the cut at Royal Troon and gone from an Asian Development Tour player with $2,000 to his name to a player with multiple national open wins.
Golf has taken John Catlin to many places. There was just one place it hadn’t taken him. A place every golfer dreams of.
But Catlin’s long journey finally ended Sunday in Hong Kong, when he fired a final-round 6-under-par 64 to post 20 under to win the Hong Kong Open by five shots and earn a ticket to Augusta National next April. In 2025, Augusta National Golf Club and the R&A announced an alignment to offer spots in the Masters and Open Championship to the winners of select national opens. That pathway was reaffirmed this year, with six national opens offering winners a spot in the 2027 Masters and 2027 Open Championship.
When Catlin finished his final-round 64 on Sunday, he lifted his arms in the air, knowing he had just secured the golden ticket to both of golf’s hallowed grounds in Augusta National and St. Andrews, which will host the 2027 Open.
“It’s like a dream come true,” Catlin said. “I remember when I was five, seven, 10 years old, practicing, hitting putts to win the Masters; it’s been a long time coming, a lot of hard work, a lot of times when I wasn’t sure what was coming, but you just kind of held the faith. To finally be at the Masters, speechless.”
The Hong Kong Open will join the Irish Open, the English Open, the Saudi Open, the Austrian Open and the Thailand Open on Catlin’s mantle. A well-traveled trophy room for one of pro golf’s most well-traveled grinders.
“Anytime you can win a national open, I think it just adds a little bit of extra prestige,” Catlin said. “It’s amazing for this to be my sixth. If you’d told me that 10 years ago, I probably would have laughed at you. So, it’s truly special.”
Catlin joined a long list of global golfing greats to claim the title in Hong Kong. His name will now share a trophy with Greg Norman, Ian Woosnam, Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, Ian Poulter, Patrick Reed and others — many of whom passed through Hong Kong on their way to bigger dreams. That’s a path Catlin now, after years of global grinding, will finally take to Magnolia Lane.
“Really, you know, it was an event that I felt like I could do well at that I hadn’t really done well in the previous years, and so you know, to come out and play some really, really solid golf and get the job done, it’s very, very special and anytime you can be on a trophy with some of the greatest players to ever play the game, you know I just feel very humbled and very grateful,” Catlin said.
“It’s hard to put it into words.”
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