The Ballantines Championship 2009
South Korean Open Golf Tournament from Jeju Island, South Korea
Jun 19, 2009
The next destination on the 2009 European Tour and The Race To Dubai is Jeju Island, South Korea for The Ballantine’s Championship.
Defending champion Greame McDowell has a bad start shooting four over par for his first round in relatively easy conditions. The pacesetters are Mark Brown of New Zealand with a 65, Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee with a 66 and Gonzalo Fernandez Castano continuing his excellent form with a seven under par 65. Other big names starting strongly are Ernie Els and Henrik Stenson who both shoot 68’s and veteran American Fred Couples, on a rare European Tour outing, cards a 69.
Ernie Els Struggles With the Putter
Conditions on day two are tricky as the wind strength has increased. Ernie Els struggles with the putter today. Fernandez Castano and Els both shoot 74’s today and finish on -5 and -2 respectively.
The key over the weekend will be who drops the lowest amount of shots in the bad weather. Overnight Friday there is fog, wind and rain and the start of Saturdays play is delayed by three hours. The back nine holes are playing extremely tough, averaging forty shots. Jaidee is playing well and halfway through Round 3 is only a shot behind the leader, Dutchman Robert Van Derksen.
Alessandro Tadini has suffered the most today and it is very hard for a player of his relatively modest status to shoot an 84. He started the round six under with dreams in the back of his head of a big career leap and perhaps a top five finish and entry to more tournaments and a chance to secure his card. He has finished it six shots over par and likely wants to go home.
The nightmares are not confined to the lowly players. Henrik Stenson is eight over par after twelve holes, the average score is 78.55 and 29 players have scored 80 or higher. Rafael Cabrera-Bello hits a putt to six inches and then the wind catches it and takes it back to where he started from, 6 feet. Some of the players are not at all happy and feel the conditions are freak and undermining their game.
Round four sees Van Derksen continue in a similar vein, dropping shots, and suddenly Ernie Els is only two shots of the lead but a failure to birdie the two consecutive par five’s on holes nine and ten could cost him dear.
Pablo Martin is tied at the top of the leaderboard with Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano at five under par, however both drop shots at thirteen and this brings other players into the running such as Seve Benson, Jaidee, Els and Van Derksen.
Kang Sung-Hoon gets his 2nd eagle of the round on hole 16 to take the lead and it seems that Fernandez-Castano is destined to come second again as he drops a shot on seventeen to go back to four under par. A mistake comes from Kang on eighteen as he races a putt past when he should have been looking to get down in two and misses the follow up, finishing at four under par for the championship. At this moment there are still five players who could win it. Fernandez-Castano finishes on four under par.
Jaidee Wins on The European Tour
Thongchai Jaidee begins the eighteenth hole requiring a birdie to win but only makes par to force a three man play-off. After the second shot Jaidee has the advantage, being six feet away with Kang and Fernandez-Castano about ten feet short of the hole but the two of them miss and Jaidee wins on The European tour for the fourth time in Asia.
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