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South Korea take charge at Fortis International in KL

South Korea’s Bae Sang-moon and Kim Hyung-tae dovetailed superbly to snatch a three-shot lead at the Fortis International Challenge after a nine-under-par 63 yesterday.

After the fourball format, the Koreans lead Hong Kong’s Derek Fung and David Freeman, who posted a 66 alongside Singapore’s Mardan Mamat and Lam Chih Bing.

Ghana’s Victor Bravemensah and Emos Korblah provided the surprise of the day with a 67 to share fourth place with the Philippine team of Angelo Que and Mars Pucay.

Pakistan and Italy were one shot further back.

The home team of Danny Chia and Iain Steel endured a disappointing start with a 73 which left Malaysia anchored at the bottom of the 18-nation competition with Ugandan pair Deo Akope, and Godfrey Mande.

With the top-three finishers qualifying for the World Cup in China in November, Bae and Kim were delighted with their flying start. Both players shot four birdies each with Bae adding an eagle on their card.

GOOD COMBO

“It was a really good combination. I made the score on the front nine and on the back nine, Bae came in with his birdies and one eagle. He was really good coming in. It worked well,” Kim said.

The 22-year-old Bae finished the round in stunning fashion when he hammered a 330-yard drive on the par five 18th hole and delivered a precise five wood approach to three feet of the pin.

Bae said they were determined to take advantage of KJ Choi’s decision to turn down an automatic exemption into the World Cup.

“I think we’ve got a good chance. We’ve got a good start now and we’ll try to maintain our run. It’s the first time I’m teaming up with Kim and it’s been good so far. We want to play in the World Cup,” Bae said.

LOST

Freeman and Fung lost their way to the golf course and needed to make several frantic phone calls before finding their destination with the help of a taxi driver whom they had paid to lead them to the Kota Permai course.

But once they teed up, Freeman was in cruise mode, birdying the opening two holes and adding three more birdies including an eagle on the last.

“It was a solid finish, we made birdie and eagle in the last two holes and we’re pretty happy with that,” Freeman said.

Singapore’s Lam, bidding for a fourth World Cup appearance with Mardan, felt they left a few shots out on the golf course which was tricked up with some tough pin positions.

“We left a lot of shots out there and we couldn’t seem to make the putts. But despite that, we’re tied second so we’ll take it,” Lam said.
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