ubs hong kong open
The Greatest
Open
Lin Wen-tang pitched his way into golfing folklore after the finest finish in UBS Hong Kong Open history. HK Golfer recalls the moments that made the 50th edition the most exciting European Tour event in recent times
Unbelievable UBS: (l-r): Lin salutes his supporters after sinking the winning putt; Jason Hak holes out for a birdie on 18 to complete a quite astonishing performance.
Day One Liang Leads the Way
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ournaments can never be won on the first day but China’s Liang Wenchong gave the local galleries plenty to cheer on his way to earning a share of the 18-hole lead. 2007 Asian Tour Order of Merit winner Liang, who shot an incredible 60 on his way to winning the Hero Honda Indian Open just a few weeks previously, carried his exemplary form to the Fanling fairways to fire seven birdies in a 6-under-par 64 to tie South Africa’s Richard Sterne at the top of the leaderboard. 30-year-old Liang, whose rise through the ranks is in part down to the generosity of the members of Chung Shan Hot Spring who helped sponsor him in the early years, is one of the nicest guys on tour, which was illustrated at lunch on the second day. Spotting five-time Open Champion Peter Thomson, a guest of the sponsors, on the Hong Kong Golf Club verandah, Liang wandered over to introduce himself. “Hello, Mr Thomson, I am Liang Wen-chong,” he said in halting English. “It is a great honour to meet you.” Thomson, whose commitment to the game in the region throughout the 1950s and 60s helped pave the way for the first professional Asian circuit, was delighted. “Aha, our leader,” he beamed. “Keep going, lad, keep going.” It was a lovely moment but unfortunately for Liang a lacklustre 71 on the second day derailed his chances and he would end up finishing the championship in a share of 15th alongside Colin Montgomerie after carding a fine 66 on the final day. 44
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Interestingly, Lin Wen-tang would get off to the worst start imaginable. Although he would end up shooting a 65 to end the round just one stroke back, the Chinese Taipei ace made an ugly double bogey at the difficult par-four first, which just goes to show the man’s mental resilience. Lin would only make three bogeys over the next 73 holes, which were offset by a remarkable 22 birdies. Asian Tour stalwart Simon Griffiths of England holed-in-one at the short 12th to win a 1kg gold bar. Perhaps safe in the knowledge that he wouldn’t leave Hong Kong empty handed – the bar is worth approximately US$25,000 – Griffiths would end up missing the cut after a 74 on Friday.
Day Two Amateur Dramatics All hail Jason Hak [see sidebar]. The Hong Kong-born, Florida-based 14-year-old amateur, who gained entry into the championship after finishing in second place at the qualifying tournament at Kau Sai Chau the week before, stuns everyone apart from himself by making the cut. Shooting consecutive rounds of 70, the softly spoken Hak becomes the youngest ever player to make the final two rounds of a European Tour event, breaking the record set by Sergio Garcia in 1995. As far as achievements go, it’s an astonishing feat, but the tall youngster was remarkably bemused by all the media attention he was getting. “I like watching
Sergio play, so I’m glad I broke his record,” he said quietly into a forest of microphones after his round. The news is picked up and makes headlines around the world; one golf blogger in the US even comes out and says that Jason has what it takes to become the next Tiger Woods. It’s a little early to come out with statements like that, but the fact that some desk-bound hack in the Midwest has caught up on the atmosphere reverberating around Fanling goes a long way to showing the impact the tournament is making.
Day Three Langer Rolls Back the Years Reluctant bridesmaid Oliver Wilson, who has eight second place finishes on the European Tour to his name, surges to the top of the leaderboard with a 65, but it was Bernhard Langer’s 63 that everyone was talking about on day three. The 2004 European Ryder Cup captain, who won the Hong Kong Open in 1991, has a game tailor made for Fanling, but given he’s now 51 and spends most of his time on the Champions Tour it’s a stunning round in the circumstances. Two off the lead with only 18 holes to play, Herr Langer, with son Stefan on the bag, would end up finishing in a tie for sixth. Wilson, of course, would come up short again after making three bogeys in a row late on Sunday, but Lin birdied the final two holes for a blemish-free 64 to enter the final round just one stroke adrift. Not that anyone expected him to win. After Rory McIlory’s 65 moved him into a share of fourth a longside Fra ncesco Molinari, the pundits were predicting a last day showdown between the young Irishman, Wilson and Langer. One out of three isn’t bad, I suppose.
Day Four An Epic The f inal round proved to be the most sparkling in the t o u r n a m e nt ’s r ic h 50-year history – but the fun started long before Messrs Lin, McIlroy and Molinari headed into that gripping sudden death playoff. First of all 46
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there was John Daly. Playing in one of the early groups of the day, the ‘Wild Thing’ spanked it round in 62. Hardly unmasking his driver (Big John would reach the 551-yard 3rd with a couple of 4-irons), Daly was at his most impressive on the greens: his long, languid putting stroke earning him eight birdies in the first 14 holes, which sparked excitement that a sub-60 round was on the cards. And then there was Hak…again. The Boy Wonder, playing in the company of Jose Maria Olazabal, outscored the two-time Masters champ by a shot after holing a ten-footer (and earning a standing ovation) on the last for a gutsy 68. Olazabal, understandably, looked a bit put out by being upstaged by someone 28 years his junior, but was nothing but complimentary about Jason when tackled by the press. This was all a sideshow, however, to the main event: the destiny of the championship. With the course playing a touch softer than in recent years, the final round protagonists – Wilson, Lin, McIlroy, Molinari and Pablo Larrazabal – threw birdies at each other like they were going out of fashion. Wilson, as mentioned, would stumble, dropping into a tie for sixth, while Larrazabal would run out of steam after a bright start. Instead it was left to the comparatively unheralded triumvirate of the young Irishman McIlroy, the broody Italian Molinari and Lin, the overwhelming crowd favourite, who all had chances to snatch it at the 72nd after reaching www.hkga.com
the famous par-four tied for the lead at 15-under. First came Molinari, whose brilliant 20-footer for birdie pulled up less than an inch shy of the cup. Then McIlroy, who, with gap wedge in hand, came up short of the putting surface before nearly holing his chip for three. And then, most agonizingly of all, came Lin. Knowing he needed a birdie to take the championship outright, the 32-year-old, whose cheery grin lit up Fanling like his compatriot Lu Liang-huan (“ M r Lu”) at t he Open Championship at Birkdale in 1971, struck a brilliant wedge from the right side of the fairway to five feet of the hole. “He’s the best putter on the Asian Tour by a street,” confided former Asian Tour supremo Louis Martin to HK Golfer just moments before Lin grazed the edge and missed. The groan from the enormous galleries could be heard across the border in Shenzhen. Playoff! What happened next beggared belief. Playing the 18th again, Molinari and McIlroy both found the fairway, while Lin tugged his drive into a seemingly impossible position behind trees in the left rough. After Molinari hit a solid shot just beyond the flag, Lin took a gamble and fired his approach through the foliage, over the bunker protecting the front of the green to within four feet of the cup. The cheers from t he crowd were deafening. To describe it as a miracle shot is simply understating the matter (see sidebar). But the drama wasn’t over yet. McIlroy, who lost his only previous playoff to Francois Luiquin at the Omega European Masters earlier in the season, then stuck his own brilliant approach to within three feet for a
The likely lads (clockwise from top): Daly's last round 62 was the lowest of the day; McIlroy played one of the greatest shots in tournament history but it still wasn't enough; Bernhard and son Stefan celebrate a fine week's work.
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The Great Escape “I knew that as long as the ball was not in the hole, I still had a very good chance to take it to another playoff hole, so I went for it. And it was like help from the Gods; and at the end, I made it.” – Lin Wen-tang Down and out on the first playoff hole, Lin struck arguably the finest shot (or luckiest, depending on how you look at it) in Hong Kong Open history. 127 yards from the hole, with his view of the green obscured by the dense foliage ahead, the man from Taipei, with the tournament on the line, risked everything by going for the green. With 8-iron in hand, the ball fizzed its way through the leaves and braches (there was simply no room to go under or over the trees ahead), somehow avoided serious deflection, and soared beautifully onto the green to within four feet of the hole.
Hong Kong Houdini (l-r): The agony and the ecstacy - Lin fails with his effort on the final hole of regulation play, but then holes an almost identical putt on the first playoff hole; every champion needs a little luck on the way - Lin plays his miracle approach to the 18th.
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certain birdie. Molinari, like everyone else, could scarcely believe what was going on and ran his tricky birdie effort just wide to lose out, which left Lin needing to hole his putt to force another hole. The putt was on precisely the same line as he one he had missed only minutes earlier but as he stood over it, a well-oiled spectator cried out that most irritating of catchphrases that has found its way into golfing vernacular: “GET IN THE HOLE!” Incredibly, Lin stood back, smiled once more, and guided his putt into the bottom of the cup. The relief was palpable. After McIlroy tapped in his own putt, the two headed back to the 18th tee for a third and final time. This time it was McIlroy who found trouble off the tee. Pulling his hybrid, his drive bounced
UBS HK Open Leaderboard 1 Lin Wen-tang 65-69-64-67 2= Rory McIlroy 70-64-66-65 2= Francesco Molinari 66-67-67-65 4= Pablo Larrazabal 69-67-64-67 4= Chawalit Plaphol 66-66-70-65 6= Iain Steel 68-68-66-66 6= Richard Sterne 64-69-69-66 6= Oliver Wilson 66-66-65-71 6= Bernhard Langer 69-67-63-69 6= David Gleeson 72-65-65-66
265 265 265 267 267 268 268 268 268 268
11= Jeev Milkha Singh 15= Liang Wen-chong 75= JASON HAK
269 270 281
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71-63-66-69 64-71-69-66 70-70-73-68
off the Out of Bounds fence that lines the left hand side of the hole and finished in a truly terrible position at the bottom of a tree, not far from where Lin had played his great escape. Buoyed by his good fortune, Lin made no mistake and struck what looked a winning drive down the middle of the fairway. But then it was McIlroy’s turn to produce his own magic. With 118-yards to go to the pin, which was hidden by the same trees that Lin had somehow managed to smash through, the 19-year-old from Portrush produced an arguably more technically brilliant shot. Snap-hooking a gap wedge nearly 30-yards in the air, McIlroy’s effort, loaded with spin, caught the back of the putting green, avoided tumbling into the greenside bunker and stopped within 12-feet of the pin. High-fiving his caddie, the young Irishman was justifiably delighted, but only for a moment, because Lin then pulled off yet another gem, firing his own wedge shot to within inches of the hole for a cast-iron birdie. Whipping his cap off in deference to the howling cheers of the crowd, it was this shot, rather than his previous miracle approach that showed his sheer determination to win. Up on the green, McIlroy faced a ghastly putt: lightning quick, downhill with significant right-to-left break. Not surprisingly, his effort sailed past, and after knocking it in for par, the stage was left for Lin, fifty years after Mr Lu won the inaugural Hong Kong Open, to tap his in for the greatest of victories. www.hkga.com
“That is a fantastic shot by Lin Wen-tang,” boomed Renton Laidlow on the international television feed. “We thought he was dead in the water, but what a recovery from Lin Wentang. I didn’t believe he could get it up and over the trees. I thought he was going to have to thread it through there. And that has come as a shock to Rory McIlroy, believe me. But what a recovery! We’ve seen so many dramatic shots at this final hole at Fanling and that’s another one to add to the list.” Whatever your viewpoint, the shot took tremendous courage. The fact that he could probably stand there all day with a bucket of balls and not replicate it is beside the point. It was, quite simply, the shot of someone who deserved to win the UBS Hong Kong Open.
Jason Hak – Hong Kong Hero “The Hakster”, as coined by the English-speaking press, couldn’t have asked for a better introduction to Hong Kong golf. After making his way over from his home in Florida for the qualifying event, the 14-year-old, who was born in Tsim Sha Tsui, was coolness personified under the heat of professional event pressure, firing rounds of 70-70-73-68 for a four-day total of 281 (1-over-par) and a share of 75th spot. After breaking Sergio Garcia’s 13-year-old record as the youngest player to ever make the cut on the European Tour, Jason became more and more relaxed with the clamouring press as the week went on – something that not many teenagers have to deal with, let’s face it. After the final putt dropped, Jason relaxed. “It’s been a great week, much, much more than I expected,” said Jason, who had his father on the bag all week. “I will go back to Florida for more practice, but I hope to come back to Hong Kong soon. I hold a Hong Kong passport, consider myself from Hong Kong and hope to represent Hong Kong in amateur golf in the future.” Whichever way you look at it, this can only be good news.
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