A little piece of home ... in Asia.
HOWZIT HONG KONG !
The 2008 UBS Hong Kong Open                                                                                                                Home
The UBS Hong Kong Open 2008
The Hong Kong Open is the SAR's oldest professional sports tournament, celebrating it's
50th anniversary this year.  It is fully sanctioned by the Hong Kong Golf Association, Asian
Tour and the European Tour, and is played over 72 holes (4 rounds) stroke play.  

South Africa has always been well-represented throughout  the tournament's 50-year
history, although Hong Kong has not been a happy hunting-ground as only David Frost
has been crowned Champion at Sheung Shui when he won way back in 1994.
The celebratory tournament sees a total of six South Africans in the field led by past
champion David Frost and includes Richard Sterne, Louis Oosthuizen, Rory Sabbatini,
Hendrik Buhrmann and Keith Horne.

The Profile Pictures below are courtesy of the PGA & Sunshine Tour websites and are
clickable to see the players' profiles. You can follow their progress in the UBS HK Open by
logging onto the Live Score page.
                     The launch of the 2008 UBS Hong Kong Open                                                     Defending Champ Miguel A.Jimenez
The weekend ahead...

Eish! The UBS Hong Kong Open website has an excellent Live Score page where you can stay abreast of the entire field's performance
throughout the tournament, so I'm not going to even try to recreate that here. However, do check back to this page regularly as I will
update it with all kinds of lekker tit-bits and what-have-you straight from the course during the weekend's play at Shueng Shui here in
Hong Kong. Who knows, maybe I can get a couple of words from one of the SA players in Afrikaans nogal! Stay tuned...

Cheers vir eers,

Mike Jansen
 
Flying the South African flag at the UBS Hong Kong Open 2008 are:
David Frost               Rory Sabbatini                Keith Horne                 Louis Oosthuizen        Hendrik Buhrmann          Richard Sterne
Top of the Leaderboard
Louis Oosthuizen
Louis Oosthuizen

Louis Oosthuizen hails from Mossel Bay in the Southern Cape, playing out of the picturesque Pinnacle
Point Golf Resort.Originally keen on becoming a tennis pro, he was introduced to the game of golf by
his brother at the tender age of nine.
At the Hong Kong Golf Club this week, the 26-year old ended Round 2 of the 2008 UBS Hong Kong
Open at the top of the leaderboard, shooting an 8 under par 62. Asked for his comments at the end of
the day, he replied: "Yeah, it was good. It could have been... I don't want to say it could have been more,
but I played well.  I hit 17 greens in regulation, and I made some putts.  Yesterday, I didn't hit it too close
really to make any putts.  But it happens, golf."  This year there are 6 South Africans competing in Fan
Ling and about the rivalry between the Saffas, especially between himself and Richard Sterne who
himself had a good second round, he had this to say: "Yeah, there's always a bit of rivalry.  Sterne
played really well yesterday (Round 1,Thursday) and I didn't think I was going to be ahead of him after
today.  But you know, there's two more rounds left, so we'll see after that."
Well, it seems that the rivalry will continue into Round 4 of the UBS Hong Kong Open because, at the
time of writing, Sterne had just finished the 15th hole at -7, with Oosthuizen one hole behind also on -7.
Scenes from the 2008 UBS Hong Kong Open, Pictures by Mike Jansen
Round 4 at the UBS Hong Kong Open

Round 4 started well for Richard Sterne as he finished the
strongest of the South African contingent over the previous three
rounds with an 8 under par 202.  This score saw him tee off in
joint 9th place overall.  
Next was David Frost (6 under, 204) with Louis Oosthuizen one
shot adrift on 5 under 205. The other South African who managed
to make the cut, Rory Sabbatini was in distant joint 48th place on
2 under par, having shot a total of 208 over the preceding three
days.  Hendrik Buhrmann and Keith Horne unfortunately did not
make the cut after Round 2.

I walked the first 3 holes with Richard Sterne and while he
finished the Tournament confidently going into Mission Hills a
week later, the leaderboard happened to be too crowded to see
him challenge for a Trophy.
"Wat dink jy?" Richard Sterne consults his caddy on the 3rd fairway,
Round 4 of the UBS HK Open 2008 (pic. Mike Jansen)
All in a day's work

For comparison's sake, here are the scores and prize-money earned by the first 3 players as well as that of the South Africans:

Position     Name                                         R1                         R2                   R3                  R4                  Agg.            Par          Prize-money (US$)

1                  Wen-Tang LIN  (Tpe)              65                          69                    64                 67                   265             -15            416 660.00

2                  Rory MCILROY  (Ire)                70                          64                    66                 65                   265             -15            217 135.00

3                  Francesco MOLINARI  (Ita)    66                           67                    67                 65                   265             -15            217 135.00
      ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6                  Richard STERNE (RSA)         64                           69                    69                 66                   268             -12              66 200.00

24                David Frost (RSA)                    69                           68                   67                 69                    273               -7              25 250.00

29                Rory SABBATINI (RSA)            71                          69                   68                 66                    274               -6              21 500.00

34                Louis OOSTHUIZEN (RSA)    70                          62                   73                 70                    275               -5              17 500.00
And the winner is...

The official press release called Lin Wen Tang's victory:
"the greatest finish in the history of the UBS Hong Kong Open."
It was all that and more!  After fluffing what should have been an
easy put during regulation time, Lin (34) overcame a disappointing
approach shot which he pulled among the trees, by hitting the most
amazing shot ever seen at Fan Ling!
With this, the Taiwanese player defeated Irish teenager Rory
McIlroy (2nd place) and Italy's Francesco Molenari (3rd) in front of a
packed gallery. Lin became the first Asian golfer to win the UBS
Hong Kong Open after Korea's Kang Wook Soon won it 10 years
ago.

The ever-smiling Taipei resident said afterwards:
“I can’t describe my feelings,” All I can do is use my smile to say
thank you to you all. I'm very excited because I've been waiting to
win a tournament like this for a long time. I waited eight years until
2006 to win my first Asian Tour title and now I’ve won my first
European Tour title, so I’m very happy. I've always said that the
trophy goes to the most well prepared player and I've been very
well prepared this week.”

Taiwan JaYo!
As a long-term resident in Asia, of which 6 years were spent in
Taiwan, this writer shares the happiness that all Asian golf
enthusiast must be feeling after Lin's triumph.  With his victory at
Fan Ling, Lin Wen Tang joins an elite list of Taiwanese Champions
at the UBS Hong Kong Open.  Here's hoping our South African
players can give him a run for his money next year.

(Click PLAY on the YouTube box to watch Lin pull it off.)
Best wishes to Richard Sterne and Rory Sabbatini who will represent SA at the World Cup of Golf at nearby Mission Hills