Ballantines Championship: Reigning champion Graeme McDowell offered a meagre defence of his title in the opening round of the Ballantines Championship in South Korea this morning. McDowell posted a four-over 76 to lie eleven adrift of joint leaders Mark Brown and Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano.
Starting on the 10th, three bogeys in his first nine holes set the tone before three more on the way back added to his woes. Birdies at the fourth and ninth took the sting out of the round a little, but still left him at the tail end of the field and facing an uphill battle to simply make the cut
“I’m shocked and stunned. Just didn’t play very well. I drove it all over the place. It was just a bad morning in the office. I didn’t feel quite at the races this morning,” McDowell said after his round.
“I’ve got no complaints. The course was there for the taking. It was in good condition, the greens were a little elusive. I didn’t really putt too well at all.”
Despite the setback, the 29-year-old from Portrush insists he will continue to fight to successfully defend a title for the first time since 2005.
“Obviously I’m going to need three really good round to try to compete on the weekend,” he added.
“I’ll be going out all guns blazing tomorrow, no doubt. I know I can go low on this golf course, but that wasn’t quite what I had in mind this morning.”
With McDowell out of sorts, Damien McGrane leads the way from an Irish perspective after reaching three-under at Pinx Golf Club on Jeju Island. Peter Lawrie and Gareth Maybin was a shot further back on two-under while Paul McGinley (one-over) and Jonathon Caldwell (four-over) have ground to make up.
Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee shot four consecutive birdies to close in on the lead and finished his round on six-under.
Thongchai, who won the Enjoy Jakarta Indonesia Open earlier this year, holed birdies from the second to the fifth holes this morning en route to closing the gap on Brown and Fernandez-Castano to one shot.
Brown had started by carding an eagle on his first hole at the par-five 10th. Despite a bogey at the 14th, back-to-back birdies at holes 16 and 17 put him back up among the front runners at the turn, before two more consecutive birdies at the first and second holes and further birdies at the seventh and ninth pushed him to a share of first place.
Brown, meanwhile, was more than happy with his look at the course at the Pinx Golf Club. And he admitted there was more to come from him as the tournament and the year progresses.
“I didn’t play here last year, so it’s my first real look at it. But I just played nice and steady,” he said. “The last two or three tournaments I’ve started to play a little bit better and get my confidence up a little bit.
“I’m aiming to peak for a major in July back in Europe. It’s a step in the right direction.”
Collated first round scores
(Irish & Gbr unless stated, par 72)
65Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa), Mark Brown (Nzl)
66Robert Jan Derksen (Ned), Kyung-nam Kang (Kor), Thongchai Jaidee (Tha)
67Alessandro Tadini (Ita), Robert Dinwiddie, Jason Knutzon (USA)
68Mikko Ilonen (Fin), Chih-bing Lam (Sin), Chawalit Plaphol (Tha), Brett Rumford (Aus), Soon-sang Hong (Kor), Scott Barr (Aus), Ernie Els (Rsa), Dae-hyun Kim (Kor), Hyung-tae Kim (Jpn), Wook-Soon Kang (Kor), Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa), Henrik Stenson (Swe)
69 Damien McGrane, Ho-sung Choi (Kor), Branden Grace (Rsa), Danny Willett, Simon Dyson, Kyung-Tae Kim (Kor), Felipe Aguilar (Chi), A-Shun Wu (Chn), Pablo Martin (Spa), Wen-hong Lin (Chn), Gaurav Ghei (Ind), Anton Haig (Rsa), Mardan Mamat (Sin), Seve Benson, Fred Couples (USA), Sung-hoon Kang (Kor), Hyung-sung Kim (Kor)
70Wei Chih Lu (Tha), Andrew Tschudin (Aus), Peter Lawrie, Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den), Ted Oh (Kor), Joong Kyung Mo (Kor), Marcus Fraser (Aus), Zane Scotland, Magnus A Carlsson (Swe), Gareth Maybin, In-hoi Hur (Kor) , Scott Drummond, Rhys Davies, Kane Webber (USA), Richard Finch, Iain Steel (Mal), Inder Van Weerelt (Ned)
71Seung-yul Noh (Kor), Ake Nilsson (Rsa), Yong-jin Shin (Kor), Klas Eriksson (Swe), Unho Park (Aus), Takao Nogami (Jpn), Wil Besseling (Ned), Prom Meesawat (Tha), Wen-chong Liang (Chn), Markus Brier (Aut), Jong Yul Suk (Kor), Chapchai Nirat (Tha), Lee Westwood, Jeppe Huldahl (Den), Shiv Kapur (Ind), Nick Dougherty, Thaworn Wiratchant (Tha), Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind), Chris Rodgers, Rick Kulacz (Aus), Gwang-Soo Choi (Kor), Fabrizio Zanotti (Par), Barry Lane
72Sang-ho Choi (Kor), Peter Hedblom (Swe), Graeme Storm, Johan Edfors (Swe), Pablo Larrazabal (Spa), Myung-ho Kwon (Kor), Jose-Filipe Lima (Por), Anthony Kang (USA), Artemio-hiromasa Murakami (Phi), Federico Colombo (Ita), Prayad Marksaeng (Tha), Wade Ormsby (Aus), Seung Ho Lee (Kor), Dae-Sub Kim (Kor), Do-kyu Park (Kor), David Gleeson (Aus), Francois Delamontagne (Fra), Stuart Manley, Maarten Lafeber (Ned), Andrew Dodt (Aus), Lee Sung (Kor), Young-soo Park (Kor), Peter O'Malley (Aus), Jyoti Randhawa (Ind)
73Ben Leong (Mal), Somkiat Sri-sanga (Tha), Jean Van de Velde (Fra), Pelle Edberg (Swe), Simon Griffiths, David Frost (Rsa), Peter Hanson (Swe), Scott Hend (Aus), Eirik Tage Johansen (Nor), Oskar Henningsson (Swe), Digvijay Singh (Ind), Richard Bland, Ki joon Song (Aus), Wi-joong Kim (Kor), Wen-Tang Lin (Tai), Scott Strange (Aus), Marcus Both (Aus), David Dixon, Sang-moon Bae (Kor), Richard Green (Aus), Paul McGinley
74Won-Kyung Heo (Kor), Bryan Saltus (USA), Frankie Minoza (Phi), Martin Erlandsson (Swe), Kyung-sool Kang (Kor), Mars Pucay (Phi), Heung-chul Joo (Kor), Andrew Mckenzie (Aus), Guido Van Der Valk (Ned), James Kamte (Rsa)
75Sang-woo Jeon (Kor), Do-hoon Kim (Kor) , Chris Wood, Darren Beck (Aus), Rafael Echenique (Arg), Terry Pilkadaris (Aus), Chang-kyu Hong (USA), Chinnarat Phadungsil (Tha), Tae hee Lee (Kor), Keith Horne (Rsa), Angelo Que (Phi)
76Carlos Del Moral (Spa), Jonathan Caldwell, Graeme McDowell
77Ji-Ho Jung (Kor), Tony Carolan (Aus), Jong-koo Yoo (Kor) , Joon-eob Son (Kor)
79Mitchell Brown (Aus), Antti Ahokas (Fin), Adam Blyth (Aus)
80Airil Rizman (Mal), Kook-hwan Kim (Kor)
81Gavin Flint (Aus)
