Y Josele Ballester (-9) went all out. He held nothing back in the final round of the Singapore Open. He knew he needed a low round to give himself a chance to qualify for the next Open Championship and he went for it. And he got it. A 66, five under par, at the Serapong course of the Sentosa Golf Club. He did his part. No complaints in that regard. However, he also needed help from the leaders and that did not come…
Neither South Korean Jeongwoo Ham (-15), the tournament winner, nor Australian Cameron John (-14), the runner-up, faltered. Since there were only two spots for the Open at this Asian Tour event, Ballester, tied for third with Thai Jazz Janewattananond and Japanese Tomohiro Isizaka, missed out. There will be more opportunities.
Anyway, hat off to Josele. He tried and you can’t ask for much more. He carded a 66, with six birdies and only one bogey. He played superbly from tee to green. He had 16 birdie putts. He gave himself the opportunities. Clearly, the problem was not this Sunday, but the ground he surrendered in the first three days to two players who have been on fire all week.
To understand how well Ballester played this Sunday at Sentosa Golf Club, there’s no better place to look than his par 5s. Of the three on the Serapong course, he eagled two, holing out for eagle on both occasions. As the saying goes, he was more than comfortable. He only lacked a bit more accuracy with the putter to have applied even more pressure to the two leaders. In any case, Cameron John also shot a 66 today, nothing to complain about, and leader Ham defended spectacularly with a 68. In truth, Josele would have had to post a 61 to have had a chance. Big ask on a course that doesn’t give away low scores.
In any case, although the result may be a little bitter from coming so close to the Open target, there’s a lot of sweetness to take away. It’s his second consecutive top 3, after the one he achieved last Sunday at Chapultepec, Mexico. Also, since the Spanish Open last October, Josele has played twelve world ranking events with a record of one victory, two third places and three further top 10s. In other words, since the tournament at Club de Campo he finishes inside the top ten in one out of every two events he plays. That’s consistency.
Notable finish also for Luis Masaveu (-6), with a 68, for a final position of twelfth. Two consecutive top 15s for the Madrid native. Also, Pablo Ereño (-5) finished with a 69, placing him inside the top 20. Another good week for the Madrid player.
The fight for the victory was a head-to-head between Ham and John. They fought a fantastic duel. The Australian did everything he could to unseat the Korean golfer, while the leader managed to hold firm when the pressure was on. The best example came at the 13th. Ham was in trouble in the greenside bunker and holed out for birdie, and immediately afterwards John holed a very long putt of about twelve metres.
Ham managed to withstand John’s attack and took his first victory on the Asian Tour, after several wins on the Asian circuit as well as in the second tier of the Japanese circuit. Both Ham and John will be at the Open Championship. Josele, make no mistake, will keep trying. With this result, Ballester will gain about ten places in the world ranking, moving ever closer to the top 100.
