Be my Ballantine

With the Ballantine's golf championship being held this past week, I've been running back and forth across the course to get as much footage of the tournament as possible. The last week has been both hectic and adventurous, but I'm glad that things will be getting back to normal.

Now that I've got a moment to get back to my writing and reflect on all that's happened, I'll be giving a day by day account of my experience from the tournament.

Thursday April 23rd, Ballatine's Championship Day 1:

Another early morning for Brian and I. We get to the course in a cab around eight-thirty, and go through a some what lengthy process to figure out where we can get our press passes; turns out that you need a pass to get into the place where you get your pass...sounds silly, but that's how it goes sometimes, even in Korea.

When we finally gain access to the Media Centre, I was impressed at how well everything was organized; there were updates and statistics of every kind, and plenty of access to anything we could have wanted or needed. It was a significant difference from the tournament last week, which had very little information available in English or even accessible online.

Once we had checked the list of groups for the first round we learned that almost all of the ones we wanted to follow had teed off already, so we took a look at the course map and figured out our best option: to join up with Graeme McDowell, Lee Westwood, and Prayad Marksaeng on the 14th hole.

Graeme was Ballantine's Champion last year, and it seemed like as good as any place to start with our coverage of this year's event. Westwood was a new addition to the tournament this year, but was one of the big names invited to draw in the crowds to the exclusive Jeju golf club.

When we finally found them, Brian and I had already setup and got in position, ready for the action. At this point, Marksaeng was leading the group by a couple strokes, with Westwood just behind, and McDowell over par.

There were a few other photographers there with us as well, some with pretty impressive camera gear that Brian was definitely envious of. We exchanged a few hellos, and then proceeded about our task: trying to get some great action shots. The next couple of holes were interesting, with Marksaeng expanding his lead and McDowell slowly trailing behind.


By the 18th hole, McDowell was behind Marksaeng by five strokes. It was their 9th hole, as their group teed off on the 10th for the first round, so McDowell still had time to catch up with Westwood and Marksaeng.

Westwood on the 18th fairway hits a nice shot onto the green:



Graeme McDowell doesn't do so well, and lands in the bunker near the green on the 18th.



However, he does make an impressive recovery from the sand trap onto the green.



The group moves onto the first tee to complete their final nine holes, Brian and I take a glance at the leaderboard to see where the rest of the big names are at. We watch Westwood, MarkSaeng and McDowell tee off on the 1st, and then decide it's time to move onto to something else.



Brian spots a large gallery around the green on the 9th hole, and we move in to see what's got everyone's attention:



The course is very well kept and has an equally impressive background with both Hallasan and Sanbangsan along the horizon. We spot Korean sensation Seung-yul Noh, his ball lands in bunker on the 9th green; he makes the difficult shot look easy, getting his ball within a few feet of the hole.



At this point Brian and I are getting very hungry, and he's also got to be back to Jeju city for class in an hour, so we scurry off to the media lunch tent. When we get there we find the most glorious buffet waiting for us:



I make a few trips to the buffet table and enjoy myself while Brian crams down as much food as possible before bolting out the door for the clubhouse.

Later I attempt to catch up with Ernie Els but find that I've gone the wrong direction and am no where near where I should be. With my time running out, I get the shuttle from the golf course to the Shilla hotel and grab a cab home; Ernie will have to wait.

Photo by Brian Miller