Kurt Barnes became the first Australian golfer to win on the China Tour on Sunday, closing with an even-par 72 for a one-stroke victory in the Sofitel Zhongshan IGC Open in Nanjing.
I had a chance to play in the practice round with Barnes and two of the other Aussies in the tourney. Barnes is one of the longest hitters I have played with in a while. I kept up with them thru the practice round despite some drives being 30-40 yards longer than mine. All of them were quality players and quality people.
Barnes finished with a four-under total of 284, one ahead of Thailand’s Wisut Arjanawat, who shot a 68, and two clear of Zhang Lianwei, who posted a 75 on the closing day of the 1.2 million yuan ($A246,000) event.
Liu Guojie (72) was fourth on one-over, Yuan Hao (74) was fifth on two-over, while 18-year-old South Korean Eom Jae-woong (72), Ye Xionghui (75) and Australian Craig Scott (76) shared sixth on three-over.
Barnes, who won 225,000 yuan in the Omega China Tour’s richest event, was congratulated by fellow Australian players, caddies and fans as he broke a four-year trophy drought and won his first title outside of Australia.
“This feels awesome. It’s a huge weight off my shoulders,” said the 27-year-old, whose previous victory was the 2005 Victorian Open.
Barnes paid tribute to crowd favourite Zhang, who held a one-stroke lead over the Australian going into the final day after the pair shared the lead in the first two rounds, but came unstuck early on.
“I was surprised to be in the lead so quickly and go three ahead after three holes,” said Barnes, who birdied the par-five second, which Zhang bogeyed before suffering a double bogey on the par-three third.
Like the last four years of his career, it was an up-and-down final round for Barnes, who bogeyed the sixth, eagled the par-five seventh and then four-putted the par-three eighth for a double-bogey.
“I dodged a lot of bullets today, especially after I four-putted eight and hit into the hazard with my tee-shot on 16,” said Barnes.
On the back nine he had two birdies and two bogeys, including at the 16th, where he was six-over for the week.
The back nine was tough for everyone especially during the first two rounds because of the high winds. Lots of balls from veteran players ended up in the water.
Wisut, who had three top-10 finishes on last year’s Asian Tour, was another happy debutant after an impressive final round. After bogeying the first two holes, the 27-year-old racked up a chip-in eagle on the par-five 11th, six birdies and two more bogeys for the joint low round of the day.
As Barnes celebrated, a gracious Zhang regretted another missed opportunity to win the Sofitel title, following two runner-up finishes in the past two years.
“I had a bad start in the first three holes and was never able to catch up after that,” said the 43-year-old, who has won six titles on the Tour and the 2006 Omega Order of Merit.
Not making the cut was disappointing, but I am looking forward to coming back to the tour to play in other events.
Special thanks to Golf Gift providers Birdieball who helped sponsor my trip. And my appreciation for Roland Catellier and The World Sports Group for making the event a reality for me. It was a beautiful course, a well organized tournament and a great chance to meet quality Chinese sportmen.
