Long Hit Confrontation between New Star vs. Tank

Driver Tee Shot was a key in the confrontation of long-ball hitters.

Round 1(total prize money of 0.5 billion won, championship prize of 0.1 billion won) of the 45th KOLON KOREA OPEN held in Han Yang CC New Out Course, Goyang-si Gyeonggi-do on September 5.

Standing face to face in the same group from the first round as special inviting players, ’Tank’ Choi Kyung-Ju (32, Superior) and ‘New Star of Europe’ Sergio Garcia (22, Spain) had an exciting driver tee shot from the first hole, and their play moved the gallery to admiring cry.

They ended in tie in the 10th hole which is the starting hole(par 4). Choi Kyung-Ju and Garcia took the tee shot of 280 yards and 290 yards to Fairway respectively, and then did the par save with 2 On 2 Putting safely.

However, Choi Kyung-Ju played the Bogey with 3 On and 2 Putting in the 11th hole (par4) which his driver tee shot fell into Rough under right slope.

The 12th hold driver tee shot of Choi Kyung-Ju fell into Rough again. Choi Kyung-Ju

failed to do 2 on owing to undirected Triple Shot, and did the double Bogey because of

3 putting in a distance of 4m. He had a drop to 3 Over Par.

However, Choi Kyung-Ju took the first Birdie in 14th hole (par 5) and ended with 1 over

par by taking the second birdie in 17th hole (par 4).

On the other hand, Garcia did the first Bogey in the 12th hole, but took the driver in most of holes. He showed off his long hitting. Garcia took the first birdie in 16th hole (par 5) late over Choi Kyung-Ju, but he showed off his play of the 5th place in the world ranking, by taking the burdie over Choi Kyung-Ju.

As of the 4th hole, Choi Kyung-Ju has the even par and Garcia has 3 under par.

Besides, Choi Sang-Ho(47,·Pajero) who failed to advance to Overtime owing to 1 hit in Shinhan Donghae Open last week, got the lead with Gang Uk-Sun(36, Samsung Electronics) and Shin Yong-Jin (38, LG Fashion).(as of 5:00 PM)

Choi Sang-Ho who has the greatest wins in Korea (42 wins) took the 6 birdies from the 12th hole, and started cheerfully for the championship after 6 years since Yeongnam Open in 1996.

Kim Dae-Sub (21, Sung Kyun Kwan University) ended the first round with 1 under par 71 strokes, and Choi Kwang-Su (42, Kolon) showed the safe start with 3 under par and 69 strokes.

This tournament as the regular tournament of Asia PGA Tour, has the events of free gifts and gallery by giving 1 Projection TV(Samsung PAVV) to 1 gallery by lot every day as the big pro golf event for the season.

Young-Sik Ahn ysahn@donga.com