An Byeong-hun returns to starting line, secures DP World Tour card for next year

An Byeong-hun is heading back to Europe, where he first nurtured his dream of becoming a professional golfer.

An carded a 5-under-par 66 — six birdies and one bogey — in the sixth and final round of the Q-School Final Stage at Infinitum Golf Lakes Course (par 71) in Tarragona, Spain, on Thursday (local time). He finished at 28-under-par 400 in a tie for eighth place, good enough to earn a tour card awarded to the top 15 finishers.

Europe is where An launched his professional career. After making his name by winning the US Amateur Championship in 2009 as the youngest champion in the event's history, he turned professional in 2011. He then went through Q-School and began his tour career in earnest on the Challenge Tour — the DP World Tour's second-tier circuit — starting in 2012.

In 2014, An fired a final-round 64 to win the Challenge Tour's Rolex Trophy in Geneva, Switzerland, by three strokes. It was the first Challenge Tour victory by a Korean player and his first professional win. That same year, his Challenge Tour performance earned him promotion to the European main tour the following season.

In 2015, An claimed his first DP World Tour victory at the tour's flagship event, the BMW PGA Championship. Playing the tournament for the first time at the prestigious Wentworth Club near London, he won by six strokes, setting the lowest winning score in the event's history at the time and becoming the first Asian player to lift the trophy as a rookie.

An went on to win the European Tour Rookie of the Year award that season before expanding his schedule to include the PGA Tour. In 2024, he captured the Genesis Championship held in South Korea for his second DP World Tour title. This year, however, he took on a new challenge as captain of LIV Golf's Korean Golf Club team — and ran into an unexpected obstacle.

LIV Golf filed for bankruptcy protection in September after the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund decided to halt its financial support. A restructuring plan through new investors also fell through, and the organization announced it would wind down operations on Nov. 5. An was left needing to secure a new stage to compete on for the coming season.