Singapore: Royal Birkley 10,700 km, says the board, rather tantalisingly, just outside the Championship hole at The Serapong. On Sunday, with heavens opening up and oppressive humidity testing the resilience of those on the course, Korea’s Jeongwoo Ham covered that distance in nine draining hours by virtue of winning the $2 million Singapore Open.
The International Series event, part of the Open Qualifying Series, offers two spots for the game’s oldest Major which means Australian Cameron John, who was equally gritty and effective on the day and finished two strokes behind Ham, also booked his berth for the coveted competition.
“Over the last two years, my golf hasn’t been going too well, so this is a motivation for me. It tells me that if I prepare well, I too can win. Honestly, I was not thinking at all about winning. Even today, I was playing just so-so, and I thought I’d be 10th on the leaderboard. I really did well in my putts, but my iron shots were slightly lacking. But thankfully, my putting went well and it saved the flow of my rounds,” the 31-year-old, a four-time winner on his native Korean PGA tour, remarked.
“The Korean and Asian players playing in The Open was something that I could only be envious of. The Open will be a new experience for me, but I’m going to go there and drink a lot of whiskey and have fun.”
The honours, however, well and truly belonged to Ham who secured a fine wire-to-wire win despite the testing conditions. Ham started the day with a four-shot lead over John and when the rain interruption occurred at around 11:47am local time, the leader group had completed seven holes with the Korean three ahead. The three-and-a-half hour break did little to break their rhythm or resolve with both Ham and John going bogey free on remaining holes.
Ham struck an early birdie on the second hole before making a bogey on the third. The next hole saw him sink another birdie before he produced a flawless back nine with birdies on the 13th, 14th and 18th and parring the rest.
John was equally impressive. An opening birdie on the first hole was a sign of things to come as he went on to nail birdies on the seventh and ninth to make up for the lone blip on the par 4 third. His back nine were even better. Under sustained pressure from Jazz Janewattananond, Josele Ballester, and Tomohiro Ishizaka, John went about his business with calm authority, never letting Ham breathe easy.
The duo engaged in an absorbing back nine battle and when a birdie on the par-4 12th saw John reduce the gap to one stroke, the possibility of Ham losing the contest in the final stretch was quite imminent. The Korean short-sided himself in the greenside bunker to the right of the pin on 13th but proceeded to hole his bunker shot. John responded with a 40-feet birdie putt to keep the contest alive.
The pair again traded birdies at the par-3 14th to put a five-shot buffer between themselves and the rest of the field, but Ham ensured there were no further slip-ups. In his own assessment, Ham played a “so-so” round and reckoned he would finish tenth.
Gill rises, Bhullar slips
Pukhraj Singh Gill (71-70-72-67) and Gaganjeet Bhullar (67-68-72-73) finished as the best placed Indians at Tied-26th with a total score of 4-under 280. Starting from the 10th tee, Gill birdied the 11th, 14th and 18th holes to go with a lone bogey on the par-4 16th. After the turn, he gained two more strokes at the 4th and 7th holes.
While Gill jumped from his Tied-45 overnight, Bhullar’s game fell apart after he was T-5 on Saturday. The 11-time Asian Tour winner carded 2-over 73 on the final day, and was able to find some rhythm only in the closing stages. Four bogeys and a double bogey meant the slide was swift and two birdies in the last two holes did little to arrest it.
