James Byrne has fallen agonisingly short in three cracks at qualifying for the 150th anniversary Open at St Andrews and will have one more shot as he aims to build on his excellent week at the Amateur Championship at Muirfield.
The Banchory 21-year-old, Scotland’s No 1 ranked player, has no answer to the brilliance of South Korea’s Jin Jeong on the greens of the famous East Lothian links in Saturday’s final of the Amateur, going down 5 and 4 to the first Asian player to claim the famous old title.
Jeong completed a clean sweep of the most prized amateur titles in golf for Korea, following Byeong Hun An’s win in the US Amateur last year and Han Chang-won’s victory in the Asian Amateur, all of them booking a prized place in the Masters at Augusta with their victories.
For Jeong, however, the main treasure was the place in the Open field next month at St Andrews, and for Byrne that prize remains naggingly elusive for another week at least.
“It’s the third time I’ve been in with a shout of getting in the Open,” he said.
“I led qualifying last year and missed by a shot, led the European Individual Amateur in the final round and missed by three, and now this.
“I really believed I’d be third time lucky this week.
“It means I’m at local final qualifying next week at Kingsbarns having another crack, and the way I’m playing at the moment, there’s no reason why I can’t make it.”
It’s unlikely he will face anyone with such a glorious touch on the greens as Jeong, who after a nervy start saw him two down early on, dominated the final.
“He made a couple of early bogeys and I got two-up, but he barely gave me a chance after that. I didn’t play as well as I had in the semi-final, but not that much worse,” said Byrne.Frightening”He holed so many it was frightening.
“He had the right speed on just about every one and conditions were difficult because the greens were lightning and you were judging the wind and the break.”
Two up at lunch, Byrne’s chances suffered a bad break at the first of the afternoon when, with Jeong in a bunker off the tee, the Scot’s drive hit a TV camera tripod and ricocheted into the sand, allowing Jeong to escape with a half in bogey.
The Korean’s next false shot was missing the green wide right at the short fourth, but he holed a tricky 10-foot par putt for a half that Byrne regarded as the key to the match.
“He misses that, it’s back to one down for me and it’s game on, but he holed it and then started holing everything,” said the Scot.
Jeong seized the opportunity to kick open the door to the title with three magnificent birdie putts, each from around 25 feet, at the next three holes, to win them all and go into an unassailable position at five up.
Ceaseless practice by Jeong, who was born in Busan but moved to Melbourne three years ago for the better climate and practice facilities, is the key to his success on the greens and for the rising numbers of Koreans in golf in general, he said.
“The men are maybe not as disciplined as the girls who have done well in the women’s game, but I think all Koreans work harder and practise more than other nationalities,” he said.
“To me the dream is to play in the Open because I missed the cut at the St Andrews Links Trophy last week and only had one practice round on the Old Course, and now I get to have many rounds there.”
For Byrne, there’s the consolation that Jeong will not be eligible for the most important events left in his season the Palmer Cup between the European and US students next week, the European Team Championships in Sweden next month, and the World Amateur Team Championships in Argentina later this year, which Jeong will miss as he is seeking to take up Australian citizenship.
Photo used under Creative Commons licence courtesy of Flickr user John Mundy.