Seoul: World number seven Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa is eager to erase the heartbreak of missing the cut at the Masters by putting up a noteworthy debut performance at the \u20ac2,205,000 (Approximately US$2.8 million) Ballantine\u2019s Championship which tees off at the Blackstone Golf Club on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Oosthuizen\u2019s uncharacteristically missed the cut at the year\u2019s first Major last week and is determined to bounce back by reproducing his best form that led him to multiple victories worldwide including his Open Championship win in 2010.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy short game really let me down at the Masters as my putting wasn\u2019t good enough. I had far too many putts, and ended up missing the cut by two,\u201d said Oosthuizen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hit it okay. It was not great, but not terrible either. The greens just got the better of me for the two days. But it hasn\u2019t knocked my confidence too much, and I still feel good about this week,\u201d said Oosthuizen.<\/p>\n
The South African is also ready to repay the fine hospitality that the tournament organisers have bestowed on him especially after they had arranged for a private jet to fly him from his Florida home in the United States to Seoul.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen a lot of this tournament on television and heard a lot of good things about it from Ernie Els, so it was an easy decision for me to make. Plus they made it even easier for me to come by putting up a plane all the way from the States over here. That was really nice of them,\u201d said Oosthuizen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to the week and looking forward to seeing what challenges the golf course presents when I play the Pro-Am this afternoon. From the range it looks like some of the holes are quite tight off the tee, so it should be a good test,\u201d added the South African.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile Korea\u2019s Bae Sang-moon believes he has a chance of becoming the first Korean winner at the Ballantine\u2019s Championship if he can overcome his opening round jitters.<\/p>\n
\u201cI flew all the way from the U.S. to take part in the Ballantine’s Championship 2013 and my goal is to win the trophy,\u201d said Bae.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year, I had a very poor first round and it had some repercussions in the remaining three rounds. So this time around, I’m going to put a lot of concentration and focus on the first round,\u201d added Bae, who opened with a 75 last year before having to settle for a tied-20th finish.<\/p>\n
Since earning his US PGA Tour card at Qualifying School last year, Bae, who spent his early years honing his skills on the Asian Tour, has been serving notice of his talent to the worldwide audience.<\/p>\n
While he has yet to make his breakthrough on the PGA Tour, the three-time Asian Tour winner has enjoyed two top-10 finishes in his rookie year and has already posted one top-10 in the United States this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m gaining lots of confidence and I’m in the process of continuously improving. I try not to get too upset with myself after a bad round and I think this is the right way to grow and develop as a player,\u201d said Bae.<\/p>\n
Compatriot Kim Kyung-tae, who has featured in every Ballantine\u2019s Championship since its inaugural event in 2008, also remains hopeful that a Korean player can enter the winner\u2019s circle despite the odds stacked against them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe European players are more exposed to these windy and cold conditions and they are really good at overcoming these challenges. The greens are also very undulating here and they get to play on similar conditions regularly over in Europe as well,\u201d said Kim, who made his debut on the Asian Tour in 2007 and shot into prominence when he won his maiden title at the Maekyung Open in what was only his second event on Tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think if we can overcome those putting conditions and wind conditions, we\u2019ll stand a good chance of winning. I’ve been playing in the Ballantine\u2019s Championship for six years in a row already and I really want to win it very badly,\u201d said Kim.<\/p>\n
The sixth edition of the Ballantine\u2019s Championship will be the first event to be played in Korea on the Asian Tour this season and is once again sanctioned by the Asian Tour, European Tour and Korea PGA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Seoul: World number seven Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa is eager to erase the heartbreak of missing the cut at the Masters by putting up a noteworthy debut performance at the \u20ac2,205,000 (Approximately US$2.8 million) Ballantine\u2019s Championship which tees off at the Blackstone Golf Club on Thursday. Oosthuizen\u2019s uncharacteristically missed the cut at the year\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[3952,3524,6293,1645],"class_list":["post-14573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-world-golf-news","tag-bae-sang-moon","tag-ballantines-championship","tag-indian-sports-news-network","tag-louis-oosthuizen"],"yoast_head":"\n