Ballantine’s Championship Preview

The European Tour heads to South Korea this week for the fourth edition of the Ballantine’s Championship. Marcus Fraser defends the title and Lee Westwood will start as favourite.

Marcus Fraser defends
Fergus Bisset
By
published

Lowdown: The European Tour heads to South Korea this week for the fourth edition of the Ballantine's Championship. Marcus Fraser defends the title and Lee Westwood will start as favourite. After reclaiming the World Number 1 ranking following his victory in last week's Indonesian Masters, Lee Westwood is hopeful of continuing his winning run at the Blackstone Golf Club in Seoul. It will be the first time the World's Number 1 player has competed in South Korea. "I hadn't realised that, so it's quite an honour," he said. "I played well last week to win in Indonesia so my confidence is high. Hopefully on Sunday afternoon I'll have a chance to win it." Blackstone Golf Club provides a new venue for the Ballantine's Championship. The first three events were contested at Pinx Golf Club on Jeju Island. Last year, Australia's Marcus Fraser took the title in a tournament that was reduced to 54-holes because of rain and strong winds. Graeme McDowell won the inaugural event and Thongchai Jaidee was victorious in 2009. A strong field has assembled for this year's event with Dustin Johnson, Ernie Els and Ian Poulter all making the journey to South Korea. Poulter was in confident mood ahead of the event. "I'm here to win the golf tournament, simple as that," he said. "I am not saying that I will definitely win but you have to believe that you are going to win every week."

Venue: Blackstone Golf Club, Icheon, South Korea Date: April 28 - May 1 Course stats: par 72, 7,275 yards Purse: €2,205,000, Winner: €367,500 Defending Champion: Marcus Fraser (-12)

TV Coverage: Thursday 28 - Live on Sky Sports 1 from 6am Friday 29 - Live on Sky Sports 1 from 6am Saturday 30 - Live on Sky Sports 1 from 4am Sunday 1 - Live on Sky Sports 1 from 6am

Player Watch: Thongchai Jaidee - The winner of this event in 2009, Jaidee posted a solid second place finish in last week's Indonesian Masters. The man from Thailand is always a force when the European Tour visits Asia and he could well feature again this week.

Lee Westwood - It's hard to look past the World Number 1 for this event. Fresh off the back of a win in Indonesia, he'll be tough to beat this time out. He found 17 of 18 greens in regulation during the final round last week. If he continues that form, he might be unstoppable.

Seung-yul Noh - The young Korean has awesome talent and he has one victory on the European Tour to his name. In front of the home crowd, this could be the week he steps up and grabs a second title.

Key Hole: 15th. It's a sprawling par 5 of 619 yards with water down the right side and more lurking in front of the green. From the very back pegs few will attempt to reach in two, but if the tees are moved up, the longest hitters might have a crack. Look for Dustin Johnson to have a go at it.

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Fergus Bisset
Fergus Bisset
Contributing Editor

Fergus is Golf Monthly's resident expert on the history of the game and has written extensively on that subject. He has also worked with Golf Monthly to produce a podcast series. Called 18 Majors: The Golf History Show it offers new and in-depth perspectives on some of the most important moments in golf's long history. You can find all the details about it here.

He is a golf obsessive and 1-handicapper. Growing up in the North East of Scotland, golf runs through his veins and his passion for the sport was bolstered during his time at St Andrews university studying history. He went on to earn a post graduate diploma from the London School of Journalism. Fergus has worked for Golf Monthly since 2004 and has written two books on the game; "Great Golf Debates" together with Jezz Ellwood of Golf Monthly and the history section of "The Ultimate Golf Book" together with Neil Tappin , also of Golf Monthly.

Fergus once shanked a ball from just over Granny Clark's Wynd on the 18th of the Old Course that struck the St Andrews Golf Club and rebounded into the Valley of Sin, from where he saved par. Who says there's no golfing god?

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