Ballantine's Championship

[Stanley]

Round 1 play (4pts):

Kyung-Tae Kim to beat Simon Dyson +122 @ Extrabet
Good price to back the home player. Kim is mainly based on the Japan Tour where he was a three-time winner last year, but he does play on the Asian Tours when they hold events in South Korea - his last five finishes in his home country have yielded finishes of 13th, 3rd, 16th, 2nd and 4th. In the last three weeks, he has made the cut at The Masters and finished 7th and 12th, so he is clearly in very good form and looks set to finish highly in his home country again.

[unofficial rd1 system plays: Noren tb Campbell -182; Kim K tb Havret -125; Dodt tb Karlberg +105; Els tb Noh -110; Luiten tb Cabrera-Bello +110; Derksen tb Lahiri -167; Kang K tb Junhasavadikul -120; Donaldson tb Lee Da -111; Randhawa tb Both -110; Kim K tb Lee Da +110]

 

[lostinamerica]

Michael Campbell(150/1) e.w.

GL

 

[DerrickTulips]

Fraser to return after freak injury
(UKPA) ? 14 hours ago
Marcus Fraser will defend his title at the Ballantine's Championship in Seoul this week just happy still to be playing.
The 32-year-old Australian suffered a freak injury while playing with his son in December and is only now making a return to competitive action.
"I picked up my son over my head and felt something go in my neck last December," Fraser said. "I thought nothing of it and continued to play golf which I probably shouldn't have and over Christmas, it just deteriorated. I was referred to a surgeon who did a MRI scan on me and it showed that the disc had prolapsed."
He added: "It just kept going downhill and there were a couple of days where I couldn't walk and lost all the feeling in my right hand. The surgeon took one look at me and said that he'll have to operate on me."
Had it not been for that operation, Fraser could eventually have lost the use of his right arm, but instead he is back to play on the course where he dominated last year.
Competing with the likes of world number one Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter this week might be a stretch for Fraser, however.
"I had a week's practice before I came up," he said. "That's not really enough to compete, but it's just nice to be out there playing again and hopefully get some strength back in it pretty quick and get back to full health."

 

[Stanley]

Round 2 play (2pts):

Dustin Johnson to beat Seung-Yul Noh -150 @ SkyBet
Opposing Noh who lies 125th after the opening round. He had been tipped in places for this event, but such a poor opening round (in which he failed to record a single birdie) was no great surprise. In his last six starts, he has missed the cut four times, finished 59th in the no-cut Cadillac Championship and lost 7&6 in the 1st round of the World Matchplay. Johnson opened with 70 to lie 11th after the 1st round and should be able to shoot a similar score tomorrow.

[unofficial rd2 system plays: Finch tb Wiegele -189; Johnson tb Yang Y -150; Finch tb Ramsay -105; Els tb Liang -125; Dyson tb Martin -125; Singh tb Fraser -125; Jimenez tb Noren -125; Jimenez tb Siddikur -150; Maybin tb Aguilar -120; Wilson tb Jonzon -125]

 

[Stanley]

Round 3 play (6pts):

Chapchai Nirat to beat Dae-Hyun Kim +115 @ 5Dimes
Opposing Kim who has missed the cut in both of his Tour starts this year. He has clearly benefitted from playing in his home country this week, but he has been under the radar so far this week and he certainly won't be tomorrow as the 2nd-highest ranked South Korean on the leaderboard. For someone who plays on the OneAsia Tour, it will be quite an experience to be playing in the group ahead of Lee Westwood and the group behind Dustin Johnson. He failed to live with this pressure when in a similar position in last year's China Open - he shot 75 in the 3rd round - so a repeat performance may be on the cards. Nirat is much further down the leaderboard, but he is a player who is a regular on the European Tour, securing two top-10 finishes last year and will be playing without any pressure on him.

[unofficial rd3 system plays: Finch tb Davies +100; McGinley tb Lowry +100; Maeng tb Jung Ja -120; Nilsson tb Karlberg -110; Kapur tb Karlberg +105; Noren tb Davies -120; Jung Ji tb Yang J -125; McGrane tb Morrison -120; Donaldson tb Maybin -120; Strange tb Leong -120]