European Tour - Ballantine's Championship

The European Tour is returning to Korea this week for the 5th edition of the Ballantine's Championship at the difficult and very hilly Blackstone GC. No doubt, last year the event has been a great success (a record of 42 owgr points were on offer), with Lee Westwood (#1 at the time) and The Mechanic having an exciting Sunday battle for the title. Lee won it in the end, but as we know he chose not to defend his title. Although the field is still strong this year, with 'stars' likes Adam Scott and Darren Clarke replacing Dustin Johnson and Ernie Els, the organisers will be dissapointed with the OWGR strength, which is set to suffer a huge 10 points drop this year. And worse still, while last year the difference between the Zurich New Orleans event and Ballantine was of only 4 owgr points, this year that looks to jump up to a whooping ~20 points!

Anyway, it's good to see the event being supported by three of the best Korean players of the moment: Bae Sang-Moon (MC last year), Kim Kyung-Tae (T10) and YE Yang (MC), but KJ Choi and Noh Seung-Yul are both chosing to play in New Orleans instead. I'm still fancying Jimenez to do well once again and from the rest of the Europeans would expect guys like Noren and Kjeldsen to be in contention. Not quite sure what to expect from Casey and Poulter though (last time they've been in Korea, Casey won and Poulter missed the cut), but one thing's for sure, you can never rule out guys like them...

P.S. What's going on this week? Did they employ the same master of ceremonies for the two events? A couple of obvious common themes going on there (fashion&magnificent seven)...

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Good job they didn't get IJP to do the 1912 thing at NOLA.

Very apropos that the E.T. guys are holding a drink.
Would have expected Crane and Fowler to be holding Gideon's Bible.

What I love about the 2 images above:

1: the ET image all the guys trying to look James Bond cool but looking cheesey with the exception of the coolest man in Golf MAJ simply showing he has "the moves like jagger" move over Adam Levine.

2. The PGA guys not carrying off the look all to well except for Luke and McDowell who really look like they could fit in wearing those. Fowler I now understand why he wears the clothing he does as he looks like a sack of spuds in this!

Would be nice if clubs brought in a hickory day just for a try! I'd probably shoot 200!

Also did I read somewhere that this is Kjeldsens 400th ET appearance! Can that be right?

Fowler reminds me of Leo DiCaprio in one of his period films....

Dunno if anyone's browsed the full gallery on pgatour.com, but they look far more ridiculous once you realise all the "old-fashioned" gear actually has massive and very modern sponsors' logos all over it!

Just had to check that Kjeldsen stat, I would never have believed it... but yep, looks like he's chalked up a solid 30 or so events a year since 1998, and this is No. 400!

Ned that's what I thought 400 seemed a lot! But 30 starts a season wow nobody can say he doesn't work hard to keep his card!

Life is tough out there today, only 10% of the field are under par...
Dubbuisson looked very promissing for a while, but he is on a little run of particularly good form the last few weeks (11th in Malaysia and 4th in China), will this be his week? French golfers aren't generally among the most consistent, so we shall wait and see...
Very good round from Casey today, but Poulter falters a bit towards the end... Good starts for Scott, McGinley (!?) and the two Fishes...

I think this could be Ritchie Ramsay's breakthrough year.

One double bogey away from the lead, Doon.
Terrible round from Oleson, four double bogeys or worse - would be nice to see some consistency from him.

Dubuisson still to put four rounds together - will this be the week?

I hope so Doon. He seems to fit the present mould for Scottish golf at the moment. Loads of good tee to green players, but all average at best putters.

So do we think that John Huh(?) and David Oh(?) know each other?

(Charlie) Wi?

Na ?

Noh ?

I'm still waiting for the LPGA grouping of (Michelle) WIE, AI (Miyazato), and (Sun-Young) YOU. The commentary would be entertaining if nothing else.

SRIPATTRANUSORN? or JUNHASAVASDIKUL?

Reminds me of

Lillee caught Willey bowled Dilley

This piece of news has been making the rounds for the last day or so...
Javier Ballesteros making his debut today in a pro tournament on the same course where his father started in 1974 (apparently he wasn't aware of that).

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/golf/9227413/Seve-Ballesteros-son-Javier-to-compete-on-same-course-where-father-made-pro-debut-in-1974.html

He played in the same group with Larrazabal and I see now news coming through that he started with a 67! Not bad at all...

...Make that a 65 (course par is 70). He's tied for 5th place.

http://www.alpstourgolf.com/news/Javier_Ballesteros_at_Peugeot_Tour_Alps_de_Barcelona/315

Reminding you of someone...?

Interesting tweet from Casey after today's round...

5 hours 45 mins to play a round of golf is ridiculous. 25mph winds made it tricky but it's still too long. We need a solution. #penaltyshots

~ 2 hours too long...

45 minutes quicker in N.Orleans, still not good though.

Still no sign that Casey is going to take advantage of his "conditional status" on the PGA Tour. The E.T. is a long commute from Scottsdale, but I suppose Kaymer still does it for part of the year.

Doon the Water wrote:Reminds me of

Lillee caught Willey bowled Dilley

The bowler's Holding, the batsman's Willey.

Don't know if this sort of thing irritates anyone else but it does me.

I'm watching the live coverage of this at moment and just had a quick browse on twitter at same time. Now Sky currently are showing Poulter on the 5th hole at -1 for the tournament on their "LIVE" coverage, yet Poulter has 5minutes ago tweeted Nice little 67 today puts me back in the mix for the weekend. 4 behind the leader at the moment."

So not live coverage then! I am of course being a little pedantic but its just something that's a little annoying.

I noticed that the other morning when I flicked over to skysports news and they had Mark Foster finished with a 70. Turned back to live golf and he was still lining his putt up on the final green....

Much better scoring today. A super round from Wiesberger, but it's great to see the Mechanic once again in contention here. Amazing to see him at 48 not being bothered by these very severe hills at all, not to mention his golf... flawless over the last 32 holes! Noren making also a massive move today. But I think at the moment, my favorite to go all the way this week would be Marcus Fraser (who luckily is in my FT)... another very good performance and just feel that a win is pretty imminent from him very soon...

Glad to see Poults and Casey putting up a decent show this week so far...

Good to see Paul McGinley and Howler up with the leaders, fantastic scoring by Wiesberger.

Terrific play from Wiesberger especially these last two days. With 5 shots ahead and the way he's playing it's his to loose tomorrow... There's been 4 brilliant rounds of 65 on this tough course yesterday and today and he's got half of those (probably even more unexpected than that is that McGinley owns one of the other two). Not sure though why the Sky commentators and the press keep calling his 65 as a new course record... Bratt Rumford had a 63 on the same course last year, and I'm not sure if even that was a course record... And Miguel has gone now 50 (!) holes, and counting, without a bogey...!

Five men from the winning Ryder Cup Team at Oakland Hills among the Top Twenty!

Remarkable and really impressive performance by Wiesberger! Played like a master (flawless in the last three rounds) and finished like a true winner, hopefully we will see more of this from him this year and in the years to come. He'll be jumping inside the top 100 and he'll be starting to think, I'm sure, about new goals (top 60 and USOpen, RC, etc.). Real pitty for Jimenez to finish with a bogey after 67 (!) holes without one.

Great comeback today from Ramsay to grab the second place, with Fraser and Dubuisson sharing 3rd after some poor performance (relatively speaking) on the greens by both of them. Adam Scott and Stevie figured this course out a bit late with a great 65 today, but it's been certainly an encouraging week for at least three guys who looked that they almost lost it over the last year(s): Ross Fisher, David Howell and Paul McGinley...

The weather on the first day really affected some players. Noren was out in the worst of it and shot +3, then was no worse than 6 shots better each day thereafter. I wonder who else was hindered as badly?

Poulter's T15 (and ~ 2.7 OWGR points) should move him from 13th to 11th in the Ryder Cup World Point List and probably right at the top of Ollie's short list for a Wild Card pick.

Miguel Angel Jimenez goes to 15th in the Euro Point List which also should put him on the short list.

As of right now, I would guess that the three players most likely to be picked are Poulter, Bjorn, Jimenez which would make Gonzo as the only Ryder Cup rookie on the team.

Only two picks GPB . . . . . .

Poulter would be top of my picks shortlist no matter where he wound up in the standings!

kwinigolfer wrote:Only two picks GPB . . . . . .

Yes I know, but I think the two picks would be the two that I put on the short list.

Before we move on to the next ET stop, let's see how the two sets of 'maginificent seven' have fared last week:

NOLA: 3rd, T10, T10, T18, T57, MC, MC
Ballantine: 5th, T12, T15, T15, T20, T54, MC

Apart maybe from Luke and the Mechanic, not exactly a magnificent bunch....