Seoul: Former British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen trails by two shots heading into the second round of the weather-affected Ballantine's Championship in Seoul, South Korea. The current World No. 7 and highest-ranked player in the event returned to the course Friday morning local time to complete just two holes - dropping one stroke - of his opening round in the co-sanctioned European and Asian Tour event.
Fog and rain had caused a two-hour delay early on day one and eventually left half the field of 78 players, including the 2010 Major Champion, still to complete their first round in the $2.87m tournament. Oosthuizen had raced to six under par through nine holes on Thursday but had slipped back to four under par when poor light halted play.
The South African then bogeyed his 17th hole on Friday morning before ending with a par in a round of a three-under par 69. After a short break he began his second round. Five players shared the official first round lead with five under par 67s: Frenchman Jean Baptiste Gonnet, Sweden's Johan Edfors, Australia's Kieran Pratt, England's Matthew Baldwin and South Korean Gi-wang Kim.
One of the biggest movers in the morning was former event winner, Marcus Fraser of Australia. Fraser, who captured the title in 2010 and is looking for a first win since then, had taken a triple bogey at the ninth hole to be four over par but eventually completed his inward nine in five under par for an eventual score of 70.
Edfors was leading at 5 under after 10 holes when play was halted on Thursday, and he failed to regain his early momentum upon resumption later in the day.
"I came out of the blocks pretty good to be five under on the front nine after some really, really good golf," Edfors said. "Then we had the fog delay, and after not sleeping well it caught up with me and I felt really tired. And then came back out after the stoppage and three-putted the 11th. So the back nine was a bit disappointing, but overall it's a really good start."
David Howell is in a group on 3 under after having spent two days in bed due to illness that also ruled out any practice rounds.
"I'm delighted because I came down with something on the flight over here," the former two-time Ryder Cup winner said. "I must have picked up a bug or ate something, I guess. But I have been feeling very lousy for a couple of days, so it's very unusual and I don't think I've ever played a tournament pitching up on a Thursday morning."
Y.E. Yang of South Korea, who became the only Asian-born player to win a major by capturing the 2009 PGA Championship, shot a 70. Defending champion Bernd Weisberger hit a 71, one shot better than Paul McGinley in the European Ryder Cup captain's first event in nearly three months. Paul Lawrie, the next highest ranked player at No. 38, was struggling at 3 over after 14 holes.
Comments
0 comment