Having covered most of whom we wanted to in the first few days, it was time for us to track down the leaders and make sure we got enough coverage of them as well. Robert-Jan Derksen of the Netherlands had built up an impressive lead over the first two rounds, but was quickly losing ground on Saturday going into Sunday.
Dropping from an impressive 9 under par to 6 under on Sunday, the change in his game was noticeable, despite being still two strokes ahead of the pack. Saturday was an insufferable day and many of the players in the top twenty dropped back three strokes or more.
Brian encountered some traffic trouble on his way out of Jeju-si, so I was going to meet up with him later on course; I arrived around 10:10 am and went immediately to the Media Centre for the daily update. Once I glanced over the sheet, I saw that Derksen's group had just teed off, so I got under way and headed out to the second hole.
I was a bit more prepared Sunday, having already endured the worst of the wind on Saturday. I brought along my toque, gloves and winter jacket, which I had already packed away for the Summer; guess I should never underestimate Jeju's unpredictableness.
I was taking mostly HD video footage of his group's performance, but took the odd video on my flip for blogging purposes. Here is Derksen's group on the 5th tee, which is my favourite hole on the course:
Dersken was grouped with Pablo Martin of Spain, and 강경남 (Kang Kyung-nam) of Korea. At the beginning of the round Martin was only two strokes behind Derksen, but he ended up tying for 11th, with an even score of 288.
Here he is teeing off on five:
Derksen wasn't looking great out there, but he needed to be great if he wanted to keep his lead. Many players were having a lot better rounds on Sunday than Saturday, and the pace was starting to pick up by the time Kang and Derksen were teeing off on the 8th.
Having met up with Brian on the 7th and Jim on the 9th, we all got together to share one last feast as the journalistic Triforce; it was the last time that Jim and Brian would be covering such an event together, the two legends who started it all here on Jeju.
When we got back out there, the giant screens were replaying Kang Wook-soon's eagle shot, which moved him one stroke back of the lead. The last few groups were coming up on the final holes and it was looking really close. Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño was in group 22 of 25, and was heading onto the 18th hole with a score of 4 under par and tied for the lead. If he birdied the hole, he could win it all:
Els was in the group just behind Castaño, but was two strokes back of the lead; even if he birdied the 18th he couldn't win, but it would put him definitively in third or fourth, depending on how the remaining two leaders played.
As Thongchai Jaidee, one of the leaders tied at 4 under par, approached the green on 18, everyone was holding their breaths; in much a similar scenario as Castaño, he could win the Championship with a birdie:
Kang Wook-soon, who was also tied for the lead at this point, missed his birdie putt, and so there was a playoff. The three leaders went back to the tee on the 18th to play for the title. All three made terrific shots, but Jaidee's and Kang's were within a few feet of the hole; Castaño landed just shy of the green on the fringe. Who ever made their putt would be the winner.
Castaño's putt:
Kang Wook-soon's putt:
Thongchai Jaidee's putt:
And so, Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand took home the title and the grand prize of €350,000.
It had been a long four days of play; Brian and I were both absolutely exhausted and knew of only one last thing we wanted to do before we left:
So with a glass of 17 old premium Ballantine's scotch, we made a toast to our endeavors: "To the good times." Cheers fellows.
Photos provided by Brian Miller
1 comment:
Sweet !!!
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