Still in the chasing pack on the last day of the Ballantine’s Championship on South Korea’s Jeju island, the ask proved too much for our Ernie Els as Aussie Marcus Fraser took the title in rather blustery conditions.

Marcus Fraser stayed calm amid the blustery conditions at the Ballantine’s Championship yesterday (25 April) to claim the biggest title of his career.

The 31-year-old Australian carded a three-under-par 69 at Pinx Golf Club on the Korean holiday island of Jeju to win the €2.2 million showpiece by four strokes.

Fraser remained clear of the chasing pack – which included world No.7 Ernie Els – and kept his composure on the back nine to become the first wire-to-wire winner on the European Tour this year.

He finished on 12-under 204 for the tournament, which was reduced to 54 holes after play was held up for six hours on the first day due to fog.

Australia’s Brett Rumford (71) and Northern Ireland’s Gareth Maybin (72) were second on eight-under.

Fraser’s only previous European Tour success came seven years ago at the BMW Russian Open, a dual ranking event with the Challenge Tour, and he admitted it had been a long and frustrating wait for his next win.

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“Unbelievable, I can’t describe it,” said an emotional Fraser. “I just don’t know how I did that today. I’ve had so many chances to win in the last seven years, so to go out there and play like I did today and this week, it’s a big relief.”

Fraser, who collected the winner’s cheque for €367,500, admitted leading from the first day of the Ballantine’s Championship had increased the pressure.

“I don’t know if I have anything left in me to go a fourth round, but I don’t care,” he said. “I’ve worked very hard the last few years to be in a position where I should be winning golf tournaments, so it’s a huge reward.”

Fraser had dropped only one shot in the tournament before playing safe and laying up at the par-four 18th, where he tapped in for a bogey.

“At no point did I think I had it. I knew roughly what was going on but never got ahead of myself,” he said. “And on the last I just concentrated on getting on the fairway, and there was no way I was going to risk going for the green from there.”

Since his 2003 victory, Fraser’s best performance had been finishing runner-up in the Australian Masters at the start of the 2009 season.

Until the Ballantine’s Championship, his best finish this season was joint 11th at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.

Rumford, meanwhile, was happy with his week’s work. “I just missed a truckload of putts early today, and in rounds one and two, so I’ll be working on my putting for the upcoming tournaments,” he said.

“But it was really tough out there, any missed shots and the wind was really throwing the ball about. Even so, I’m really happy for Marcus, it’s his second win on tour and no one is more deserving. He’s a great guy.”

Maybin also struggled on the greens. “I missed a couple of short putts, so I’ll go back and work on that,” he said. “But it’s been a pretty good week. I didn’t come in here with a whole lot of form, so to finish second is a great result any time.”

Teenager Noh Seung Yul flew the flag for Korea with a sparkling 68 to finish equal fourth on seven-under with England’s Oliver Fisher, who carded a 71.

Defending champion Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand, who started the day just one shot behind Fraser, returned a disappointing 75 to finish equal 10th on five-under.

Three-time Major winner South AfricanErnie Els also finished on five-under after a difficult day. The Big Easy started the final round just two shots off the pace but, after closing the gap to one early in his round, fell away on the back nine and returned a 74.

Marcus Fraser with the Ballantine’s Championship spoils (Pic: Paul Lakatos/Parallel Media Group)

When you’re on a roll, there’s no guessing where you’ll end up.  For Hong Kong’s fifteens rugby side, there’s no guessing involved in their quest to top the log of the Top 5 competition of the Asian 5Nations rugby competition. 

Hong Kong stunned South Korea 32-8 in the opening game of the 2010 HSBC Asian Five Nations Top 5 competition to take a massive step forward in their IRB Rugby World Cup 2011 qualifying campaign.

A brace of tries from tireless forward Nigel Clarke plus one try each by fly-half Keith Robertson and substitute winger Tom McQueen enabled Hong Kong to seal a magnificent victory in front of a capacity crowd of over 3,000 at the Hong Kong Football Club.

Hong Kong captain Simon Leung tries to evade a Korean defender in their clash at HKFC on Saturday.

South Korea began strongly, posting eight points on the board in the opening 10 minutes courtesy of a penalty by fly-half Oh Youn-hyung and a try by winger Choi Si-won, but then played second fiddle to Hong Kong whose forwards set the foundation for victory – which was aided by a superb defence.

“This is an awesome start, and just what we wanted,”said delighted captain and No.8 Simon Leung. “It was a great squad effort, but we have to keep our feet on the ground as we still have another three games to go.”

Despite trailing 8-0, it was Hong Kong who held the upper hand, with Keith Robertson making up for an uncharacteristically poor half with the boot with some incisive line-breaks. The centres pairing of Rowan Varty and Simon Hempel also regularly exposed holes in the Korean defence as both forwards and backs began to move the ball around, retaining possession well and making deep inroads into Korean territory. 

Robertson missed two early penalties, but Hong Kong nerves were settled just before halftime when Clarke grabbed the first of his two tries after picking up from a ruck inches from the try-line and smashing his way over. That try was converted by Robertson who also knocked over a penalty to see Hong Kong take a 10-8 lead into the break. 

Hong Kong began the second half strongly and were rarely threatened thereafter with Korean offensive efforts further blunted with the loss of fullback Kim Won-Yong, a back-line stalwart and Korean sevens star side, through injury. 

Robertson missed another easy penalty early in the second stanza but he made up for it by creating and converting the team’s second try, helped by a lovely exchange of passes with wing Alex McQueen, to score under the posts. The scoreline was extended to 22-8 when Clarke notched his second try from close range capping some solid lead up work by brothers Tom and Alex McQueen and captain Leung.

Tom McQueen then gave Hong Kong a crucial bonus point – for scoring four tries – when he finished off another flowing move that was started by Robertson and involved Rowan Varty, who drew the defence and off-loaded beautifully to McQueen to score. Robertson knocked over the conversion to take his personal tally to 14 points for the day. Alex McQueen then put the icing on Hong Kong’s cake with a late penalty to give Hong Kong a comprehensive 32-8 victory. 

Korea’s fullback Kim Wong Yong is wrapped up by the determined Hong Kong defence

“The dream lives on,” said elated Hong Kong coach Dai Rees. “Nobody expects us to win, and that is why this is a dream. There is now a strong possibility that we can at least finish second.”

If Hong Kong finish as runners-up, (defending HSBC A5N champions Japan – who had a bye today – are favourites to book the direct berth to the World Cup next year) they will meet Uruguay in a play-off with the winner moving on to a final home-and-away repechage against a side from either Europe or Africa.

In today’s other match between Kazakhstan and the Arabian Gulf in Almaty, the visitors jumped out to an early 6-0 lead, extending it to 13 before Kazakhstan, last year’s runners-up in the HSBC A5N, asserted its dominance with its first try to claw back to a 13-7 deficit. Kazakhstan scored another in the last moments of the first half to edge ahead to 14-13 at halftime.

The excitement didn’t let up in the second half either as the game went down to the wire with both teams trading tries. With 15 minutes remaining, the score was 33-28 and both teams were in contention for the bonus point for scoring four tries or more. Paced by a raucous home crowd of over 4,000 spectators, Kazakhstan made home advantage tell, finding its stride in the waning minutes of the game to pull away for good 43-28. 

After today’s victories, Kazakhstan and Hong Kong both earned a bonus point along with five points for a win, bringing them to equal first on the table with six points each and setting up a colossal encounter in Hong Kong on May 8. But first, Hong Kong will have to overcome what promises to be a stiff challenge from a rapidly improving Arabian Gulf XV in Bahrain. Hong Kong now face a short week and will travel to Bahrain on Thursday for a match on Friday evening April 30th, while Kazakhstan are on a bye in week 2.

Read more about the HSBC Asian 5Nations on their website

If there’s one player Howzit-HongKong.com would like to see tee off at the Hong Kong Open, it’s The Big Easy. 

For now, we have to be content that Ernie Els will be teeing off at the Ballantine’s Championship in nearby Korea tomorrow, Thursday (22 April) at Pinx Golf Club on the Korean holiday island of Jeju.

The Championship will also feature top Asian players like Korea’s YE Yang, Thailand’s Thongchai Jaydee as well as 2008 winner Greame McDowell.

Follow all the action from the 2010 Ballantine’s Championship on the official website here

 When the big guy eventually doos  (oops!) does get here, hopefully we’ll catch him uttering his now-famous:

Only Ernie Els can get away with saying THAT in public!

After a week off, Ernie Els is refreshed and raring to go at the Ballantine’s Championship in Korea.

The world No.7 chose to spend a few days relaxing at the family home in West Palm Beach, Florida, after playing in the Masters two weeks ago and says he can feel the benefit.

Els will tee off at the Ballantine’s Championship in Korea tomorrow (Pic: Paul Lakatos/Parallel Media)

“I didn’t do anything,” he revealed. “I went home Sunday night after the Masters and I was home all week. The weather was great, I was in the pool with the kids, did the school run in the morning and afternoon.

“I didn’t touch a club until I came here on Monday. I did a company day Monday, I practised yesterday and played today [Wednesday]. So I feel ready to go now.”

The South African superstar returned to his best form in March with wins at the WGC-CA Championship and Arnold Palmer Invitational to take his career total of PGA Tour victories to 18.

“Obviously, I’ve had a pretty good start to the season. I’ve played mostly in the US, I haven’t travelled too much this year, and I think it’s helped my game,” he reflected.

“The win in Miami [the WGC-CA Championship] was big for me, I got a lot of confidence back, and then Bay Hill [the Arnold Palmer Invitational] was a run-on from that.

“Maybe I should have taken the week off before the Masters as I was a bit jaded there, but I still had a top 20.

“My reason for playing so much was to try and get form in March, and it came rapidly! And then I couldn’t pull out of tournaments, that would have been unfair. So yes, the season’s been going well this year.”

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Els – with three Major victories in his career – is one of the leading contenders in the Ballantine’s Championship, which tees off tomorrow Thursday (22 April) at Pinx Golf Club on the Korean holiday island of Jeju.

Other stars in the field include Asia’s first Major champion, YE Yang, three-time PGA Tour winner Anthony Kim and Henrik Stenson, who has six European Tour titles to his name.

Els finished joint fourth at last year’s Ballantine’s Championship, two shots behind eventual playoff winner Thongchai Jaidee, in a tournament played in unusually cold and windy weather.

“I had a good tournament last year,” he said. “So many people could have won it. My putt on 18 just missed and I missed one on 17 as well.

“But I had a very nice week, I enjoyed it, except for maybe the weather! It was very tough last year, hopefully this year it’s a little better.

“It’s a golf course where, if the weather conditions are nice, you can really make a lot of birdies. It lends itself to attacking golf. But if the weather isn’t good, like last year, then it’s just a question of trying to play safe.”

Els said playing in different weather conditions was one of the attractions of the European Tour and a major difference compared to the PGA Tour.

“The European Tour now is really a world tour,” he said. “You play in a lot of different conditions, I think that’s the biggest difference.

“In the US in March, you play the Florida Swing, so it’s very similar, the greens and stuff, so you can get into a flow a little bit more.

“But the European Tour is the best training ground in the world, because you play different conditions against different players and different cultures. You learn a lot more about your game on the European Tour.”

The strong field at the Ballantine’s Championship also includes the tournament’s first two winners – Graeme McDowell, who triumphed in 2008, and Thongchai.

The €2.2 million showpiece is once again co-sanctioned by the European Tour, Asian Tour and Korea PGA.

Ernie Els is refusing to give up hope of victory after a tough second day at the Ballantine’s Championship in Korea on Friday.

The South African superstar battled his way to a two-over-par 74 in cold and windy conditions at Pinx Golf Club on the island of Jeju.  That left him on two-under 142 for the tournament, seven shots behind leader Robert-Jan Derksen of the Netherlands. 

“I had a tough time out there today,” said Els. “Cold, windy, it was a good test of golf. It feels like we’re back in Scotland!  I was just horrible on the greens today. I left about four or five shots out there on the greens. It was difficult keeping your balance, basically.” 

“The greens are difficult to read. The course is up against the mountain and everything kind of slopes towards the bay down there and then they’ve got the greens tilted the other way.”

“So, yes, it’s difficult to read the greens, and I’ve been having problems.”

 Els, the main draw card at the €2.1 million Ballantine’s Championship, had been ideally placed after an opening round 68 that was made in glorious sunshine and calm conditions.  But Jeju’s famous winds were blowing on Friday and scoring suffered as a result. 

Els, starting on the back nine, began well with a birdie on the par-five 10th but struggled after that, dropping four shots in 10 holes before a birdie on the par-three fifth halted his slide.   He dropped another shot on No.7 but bounced back with a birdie at the next to leave himself in with a chance heading into the weekend. 

The three-time Major winner admitted he would have his work cut out.  “We had a good day yesterday but we knew the weather was coming. I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow; maybe we’ll have another good day, who knows? Hopefully I can start grinding something out.”

Despite his struggles in the second round, Els said he was delighted to be in Korea and helping promote the game via the Ballantine’s Championship, which is once again co-sanctioned by the European and Asian Tours and Korea PGA.

The South African is one of the world’s truly global golfers with more than 50 victories worldwide including three Majors, the US Open in 1994 and 1997 and the British Open in 2002 and an astonishing seven World Match Play Championship titles.

 He is also a two-time winner of theEuropean Tour Order of Merit and has 16 victories on the US PGA Tour. 

“Golf in Korea is really big,” he said.  “There are a lot of good players coming out of this country and they have got some great golf courses, so it’s good to be here.  This is a big event. We’ve got a great sponsor, good television coverage and some excellent international players here, so this is a big deal for Korean golf.”

“This gives them a really good measuring stick to see where they’re at.  

Ernie Els waits on the 17th tee during the second round of the Ballantine’s Championship at Pinx Golf Club in Jeju, Korea, on Friday. Els battled through windy conditions to card a two-over-par 74. (Paul Lakatos/Parallel Media Group)