How about with another 62?

That’s precisely what Thailand’s 25-year-old Chapchai Nirat rather remarkably accomplished over the opening two rounds of last week’s SAIL Open, a relatively minor Asia Tour event played outside of New Delhi. Nirat then built upon his stunning start with a third-round 65 before missing just enough putts to manage “only” a closing 67 – which, for those not keeping score at home, adds up to the decidedly lean total of 256. PGA Tour fans will quickly note that Nirat did not break the world 72-hole aggregate record (set by Tommy Armour III, with a scorching 254 at the 2003 Texas Open) but his eye-popping 32-under-par total is believed to be the lowest 72-hole relative-to-par figure ever recorded, edging Ernie Els’31-under mark, which was also set in 2003, at Kapalua. Els, by the way, also held the previous Asian Tour record, a 29-under showing at the Johnnie Walker Classic in 2003 – which, apparently, was a very good year.

And one more number worth noting: While the Classic Golf Resort layout Nirat torched may not be Pine Valley, it’s not as though everyone shot it up, for his victory margin was a resounding 11 shots!

The win was Nirat’s second in Asia, and also marks a recent Far Eastern ascendancy by Thai golfers, with Thongchai Jaidee winning three weeks ago at the Indonesian Open, and Prayad Marksaeng winning two December events in Asia, plus a November triumph at the prestigious Dunlop Phoenix in Japan. Will this trio be finding their way to America anytime soon? Nirat has indicated that he will try PGA Tour Q School next fall, while Jaidee, Thailand’s first truly competitive international player, turns 40 this year and seems to show little interest in heading west. Marksaeng, however, is an interesting case. Now 43, his late ’08 rush launched him into the world top 50 (he currently sits 50th), which gains him access to various big-stage events like the WGCs. Yet save for one failed run at Q School in 2006, he has so far shown no inkling towards tackling America.

The deciding factor? Perhaps simply age, for at 25, Nirat presumably has his best golf (though surely not his low 72-hole score) still ahead of him, and thus would seem crazy not to try to take his act worldwide.

And speaking of the 40-and-over club, recent member Retief Goosen struck an important blow in his career resurgence with Sunday’s one-shot victory at the Transitions Championship, his first PGA Tour triumph since 2005. Bothered in recent years by a poorly executed laser eye surgery and some physical fitness issues, Goosen suffered through some shockingly lean times for one whose tee-to-green and putting skills both long ranked among the game’s elite. Though somewhat overlooked here in America, Goosen’s rise really began last November when he won the Asian Tour’s Johor Open, then continued in January on the Sunshine Tour when he claimed the African Open at East London. Neither event featured world-class fields to be sure, but when a man has won as frequently worldwide – including a pair of U.S. Opens – as Goosen has, renewed success in America could not lie too far ahead.

And here we are.