SINGAPORE: "I can't stand the heat." This confession comes from the wire-to-wire winner of the $2 million Singapore Open, Korean golfer Jeongwoo Ham, who turned his weakness into success in sauna-like conditions at the Sentosa Golf Club.
His secret? "I just kept thinking: play quickly, get through it, and get back to the hotel, shower, and lie down under the air-conditioning. I wasn't overthinking the golf."
But it must have been more than that. Ham recorded four under-par rounds in the International Series event, matched only by runner-up Cameron John of Australia. He finished with a three-under 68 under pressure, unaffected by a lightning delay of three and a half hours. John, who started four strokes behind the leader, challenged with a five-under round that included a run of five birdies in eight holes either side of the break.
Both players had a shaky start. On the par-four third, Ham stumbled with a triple bogey, but John failed to capitalize with a double bogey. The lead was cut to one shot on the 12th, but Ham, whose textbook golf swing has been the talk of the town, held on for a two-stroke victory on this long-hitters' paradise by the sea.
It must be noted that there were two winners, as both Ham and John secured places in this summer's Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, the tournament being part of the Open Qualifying Series. The Korean, who rarely ventures abroad, has played only 24 times on the Asian Tour in eight years of his professional career, 16 of those on home soil. "Korean and Asian players playing in The Open was something that I could only be envious of, and I didn't expect that a dream could become a reality," he said.
(The writer is in Singapore at the invitation of the International Series)
