Australasians a chance in Beijing
BY Bruce Young | Asian Tour | 2009 Volvo China Open | Preview | 15 Apr 2009
The PGA Tour of Australasia’s 2009 season takes on a new look this week when the Volvo China Open forms part of its schedule for the very first time. The event is one of the four that will come under the umbrella of One Asia Super Series of which the PGA Tour of Australasia is one of the founding partners along with the China Golf Association, the Korean Tour, the Korean Golf Association and the Japan Golf Tour. In this case however the Japan Golf Tour has elected to stay out of this event in the hope that the politics and bickering between some of those involved in the series will sort itself out.
The event which was to be the second of this series, the Pine Valley Beijing Open in May, has been called off due to the uncertainty of the relationships between the various parties but this week’s event in Beijing may well provide a litmus test for the ongoing success of the concept. It is fair to assume that there will be numerous meetings this week to sort out many of the still outstanding issues.
The tournament was previously co-santioned between the European and the Asian Tours but with the Asian Tour’s stance against the One Asia concept fully in force, this week’s event will include European, Australasian and Korean Tour players and a selection of others from the China Golf Association. 156 players make up the field which will compete for a first prize of €276,000.
Damien McGrane defends the title he won last year, his nine shot victory coming amidst a horror downpour on the final day. So bad were the conditions that McGrane extended his three shot 54 hole margin to nine with a round of 73.
McGrane’s season to date in 2009 has been a mixed bag, following one good week with a couple of bad ones. When he’s been good, he’s been very good including a 4th at the Qatar Masters. It would be no surprise if he was to win again this week.
Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano has been in fine form of late and could be considered the favourite in this field. He finished runner up recently in Portugal and has recorded several other high finishes in recent months.
Graeme McDowell has been a model of consistency in recent months missing only one of his last 19 cuts. If he can recover from what was a solid 17th place week at the Masters last week then the leading world ranked player in this field should be in the mix.
Graeme Storm has been a little like McGrane of late, mixing good tournaments with bad. If he can play as well as he did when third in Spain recently, he is a very good chance of winning for the first time since his great win at the French Open in 2007.
Markus Brier for some reason seems to save his best for this event having won in 2007 and finished 5th in 2008. His form has been nothing special of late and in this lower strength field, he could do well.
Asia’s best player, Thongchai Jaidee, is in the field courtesy of his recent win in Indonesia and with three victories in his last five months and many other good finishes as well in that time, he must be considered the best of the Asians in this week’s field – at least on paper.
Gareth Maybin is on the verge of his first European victory and with several good finishes already this year there would be no reason why this week could not be it.
The Australasians have been given a great opportunity this week to not only play for such a significant purse but to leapfrog their way into Europe should they win.
The leading Australasian in terms of world ranking is Scott Strange who last year won the Celtic Manor Wales Open. His form has been a mixture of late but he is good enough to do well.
Mark Brown is not playing to the level he was when so successful early last year when he finished 5th in this event. He is a much better player than his recent results would indicate.
Marcus Fraser, Brett Rumford and Peter O’Malley could also be considered good chances to be the leading Australasian of the 31 in the field.
