McKenzie wins season ending Korean PGA
BY iseekgolf.com | Korean PGA Tour | 2008 Korean PGA Championship | Round Four | 18 Nov 2008
Australia’s Andrew McKenzie has won the NH Nonghyup Korean PGA Championship at Bear Creek Golf Club north east of Seoul with a birdie on the first hole of a three way playoff. He moved up 22 places and eight shots on the final day with a course record 7 under 65 in the final round.
“At the start of the day I wasn’t even contemplating winning and my goal had been to shoot the best score of the day and see where that left me. After I birdied the 10th hole I started to think just maybe as the greens were getting quick and some pin positions were tricky.”
McKenzie sunk a five metre birdie putt on the last then waited two hours for the remaining groups to finish. After the 4th round he was tied with two other players, Park Sang-hyun and Suk Jong-yul. He then sunk a two metre birdie putt on the first playoff hole to claim his second KPGA tour event in his rookie season.
“I had been tinkering with my putting the last few weeks and finally got it sorted out. The greens were so pure and when my confidence lifted the hole started looking a whole lot bigger.”
At one stage of the second round he was 6 over par and had little chance of making the cut. A mid-round putting change proved the turning point. He birdied four holes in his final nine to scrape past the cut line then had a bogey free three under 69 third round to move from 54th to 23rd place with one round remaining.
The Korean PGA championship Seoul is one of the two major events on the KPGA Tour along with the Korean Open and may give McKenzie a five year exemption on the tour. The win left him in the 7th position on the Order of Merit. He also won the Samsung Benest Open in early September. Fellow Australian Andrew Tschudin also won on the Korean Tour at the Lake Hills Open in May.
The first prize cheque earned him AUD$100,000 AUD and he now heads back to Australia for the Australasian Tour events after a successful three month stint in Korea.
