Brown and Fernandez-Castano

share lead in Korea

NEWS RELEASE ISSUED BY THE ASIAN TOUR
Jeju Island, Korea: New Zealand’s Mark Brown got his campaign at the €2.1 million Ballantine’s Championship off to a strong start when he carded a seven-under-par 65 to share the first round lead with Spain’s Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano today.

Both Brown and Fernandez-Castano soared to the top of the leaderboard with matching six birdies and an eagle each at the magnificent Pinx Golf Club to take a single-shot lead over Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee, Korea’s Kang Kyung-nam and Robert-Jan Derksen of the Netherlands who posted matching 66s to take a share of the third place.
Asian Tour regular Jason Knutzon of the United States is in joint sixth place on 67 with England’s Robert Dinwiddie and Italy’s Alessandro Tadini.
Two-time Asian Tour winner Brown is enjoying a return to form since his back-to-back victories on the Asian Tour at the Sail Open and Johnnie Walker Classic in India last year.
While the 34-year-old New Zealander has not been on a winning streak since then, he knows that his confidence will be key in ensuring he returns to his winning ways once again.
“I didn't play well for a good few months, and just lost it a little bit. But it doesn't take much to get it back,” said Brown. “You just hit a few good shots and I'm the type of person that the only way I can gain confidence is by actually seeing the proof, not by trying to kid myself. When you start to see the ball fly a little bit straighter, then you slowly gain confidence.”
Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee again showed why he is one of Asia’s best when he put in yet another impressive performance.
Thongchai started strongly with four successive birdies on his opening front-nine, starting from the second hole through to the fifth. The only blemish to his card was a lone bogey on the sixth before he made the turn in 33.
The Thai then began his homeward run with an eagle and followed that up with another birdie on the 12th to go to six-under before signing off with an inward 33.
“It was nice to be able to play in this kind of the weather today. Those four birdies that I made in a row were very nice indeed and my plan is to continue playing the way I’ve been playing today,” said the Thai ace, who tops the honour list with an unprecedented 11th career victory on the Asian Tour.
Thailand’s Chawalit Plaphol and Singapore’s Lam Chih Bing are amongst the 12 players that include world number six, Henrik Stenson of Sweden and three-time Major winner Ernie Els all tied for ninth on 68.
Chawalit, who is currently in 46th place on the Asian Tour Order of Merit, gave himself a healthy lead with an opening eagle on the 543-yard par-five 10th in the morning.
The Thai parred the next five holes before a making a birdie on the 16th but gave that shot back again on the 17th for his lone bogey of the round.
Two more birdies on the fourth and ninth in his homeward run ensured that he would stay just three shots behind Fernandez-Castano and Brown, who was also the morning leader.
“I drove the ball very well today. The weather conditions were benign today, the winds were not blowing very strongly and it certainly helped with the low scores,” said the two-time Asian Tour winner.
Couples, who won the Masters in 1992, will be looking for a more consistent round of golf after mixing five birdies with two bogeys to finish four shots off the lead.
“It was a beautiful day. We were all expecting wind and didn't get a whole lot of it, but I hit the ball pretty well. I made a few putts and ended up with a couple bogeys (sixth and 18th) but I made my share of nice little eight and ten 10‑footers to keep the round going. I guess I just have to come out again tomorrow at 7am and try to get it going again,” said Couples who finished the day tied for 21st.
The Ballantine’s Championship is the first Asian Tour event in Korea this season and is sanctioned by the Asian Tour, European Tour and Korean PGA.
FIRST ROUND

Par 72

65 Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa), Mark Brown (Nzl)
66 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned), Kyung-nam Kang (Kor), Thongchai Jaidee (Tha)
67 Alessandro Tadini (Ita), Robert Dinwiddie, Jason Knutzon (USA)
68 Mikko Ilonen (Fin), Chih-bing Lam (Sin), Chawalit Plaphol (Tha), Brett Rumford (Aus), Soon-sang Hong (Kor), Scott Barr (Aus), Ernie Els (Rsa), Dae-hyun Kim (Kor), Hyung-tae Kim (Jpn), Wook-Soon Kang (Kor), Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa), Henrik Stenson (Swe)
69 Damien McGrane, Ho-sung Choi (Kor), Branden Grace (Rsa), Danny Willett, Simon Dyson, Kyung-Tae Kim (Kor), Felipe Aguilar (Chi), A-Shun Wu (Chn), Pablo Martin (Spa), Wen-hong Lin (Chn), Gaurav Ghei (Ind), Anton Haig (Rsa), Mardan Mamat (Sin), Seve Benson, Fred Couples (USA), Sung-hoon Kang (Kor), Hyung-sung Kim (Kor)
70 Wei Chih Lu (Tha), Andrew Tschudin (Aus), Peter Lawrie, Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den), Ted Oh (Kor), Joong Kyung Mo (Kor), Marcus Fraser (Aus), Zane Scotland, Magnus A Carlsson (Swe), Gareth Maybin, In-hoi Hur (Kor), Scott Drummond, Rhys Davies, Kane Webber (USA), Richard Finch, Iain Steel (Mal), Inder Van Weerelt (Ned)
71 Seung-yul Noh (Kor), Ake Nilsson (Rsa), Yong-jin Shin (Kor), Klas Eriksson (Swe), Unho Park (Aus), Takao Nogami (Jpn), Wil Besseling (Ned), Prom Meesawat (Tha), Wen-chong Liang (Chn), Markus Brier (Aut), Jong Yul Suk (Kor), Chapchai Nirat (Tha), Lee Westwood, Jeppe Huldahl (Den), Shiv Kapur (Ind), Nick Dougherty, Thaworn Wiratchant (Tha), Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind), Chris Rodgers, Rick Kulacz (Aus), Gwang-Soo Choi (Kor), Fabrizio Zanotti (Par), Barry Lane
72 Sang-ho Choi (Kor), Peter Hedblom (Swe), Graeme Storm, Johan Edfors (Swe), Pablo Larrazabal (Spa), Myung-ho Kwon (Kor), Jose-Filipe Lima (Por), Anthony Kang (USA), Artemio-hiromasa Murakami (Phi), Federico Colombo (Ita), Prayad Marksaeng (Tha), Wade Ormsby (Aus), Seung Ho Lee (Kor), Dae-Sub Kim (Kor), Do-kyu Park (Kor), David Gleeson (Aus), Francois Delamontagne (Fra), Stuart Manley, Maarten Lafeber (Ned), Andrew Dodt (Aus), Lee Sung (Kor), Young-soo Park (Kor), Peter O'Malley (Aus), Jyoti Randhawa (Ind)
73 Ben Leong (Mal), Somkiat Sri-sanga (Tha), Jean Van de Velde (Fra), Pelle Edberg (Swe), Simon Griffiths, David Frost (Rsa), Peter Hanson (Swe), Scott Hend (Aus), Eirik Tage Johansen (Nor), Oskar Henningsson (Swe), Digvijay Singh (Ind), Richard Bland, Ki joon Song (Aus), Wi-joong Kim (Kor), Wen-Tang Lin (Tai), Scott Strange (Aus), Marcus Both (Aus), David Dixon, Sang-moon Bae (Kor), Richard Green (Aus), Paul McGinley
74 Won-Kyung Heo (Kor), Bryan Saltus (USA), Frankie Minoza (Phi), Martin Erlandsson (Swe), Kyung-sool Kang (Kor), Mars Pucay (Phi), Heung-chul Joo (Kor) , Andrew Mckenzie (Aus), Guido Van Der Valk (Ned), James Kamte (Rsa)
75 Sang-woo Jeon (Kor), Do-hoon Kim (Kor) , Chris Wood, Darren Beck (Aus), Rafael Echenique (Arg), Terry Pilkadaris (Aus), Chang-kyu Hong (USA), Chinnarat Phadungsil (Tha), Tae hee Lee (Kor), Keith Horne (Rsa), Angelo Que (Phi)
76 Carlos Del Moral (Spa), Jonathan Caldwell, Graeme McDowell
77 Ji-Ho Jung (Kor), Tony Carolan (Aus), Jong-koo Yoo (Kor) , Joon-eob Son (Kor)
79 Mitchell Brown (Aus), Antti Ahokas (Fin), Adam Blyth (Aus)
80 Airil Rizman (Mal), Kook-hwan Kim (Kor)
81 Gavin Flint (Aus)
65 - Mark Brown (NZL), Gonzalo Fernandez-castano (ESP)
66 - Kang Kyung-Nam (KOR), Thongchai Jaidee (THA), Robert-Jan Derksen (NED)
67 - Robert Dinwiddie (ENG), Alessandro Tadini (ITA),Jason Knutzon (USA)
68 - Scott Barr (AUS), Lam Chih Bing (SIN), Henrik Stenson (SWE), Chawalit Plaphol (THA), Hong Soon-sang (KOR), Brett Rumford (AUS), Rafael Cabrera B (ESP), Kim Hyung-tae (KOR), Ernie Els (RSA), Kim Dae-hyun (KOR), Mikko Ilonen (FIN), Kang Wook-soon (KOR)

Selected scores
69 – Fred Couples (Usa)
71 - Noh Seung-yul (KOR), Liang Wen-chong (CHN)
76 - Graeme Mcdowell (NIR)

Ends.