Australia’s Marcus Fraser finished an impressive week in Korea with a 4 shot victory at the Ballantines Championship on the European Tour here on Sunday. After the win, the Victorian Institute of Sport, Golf Program graduate credited a return to coach Denis McDade of Bann Lynch Golf for his win.

“…It’s all thanks to a lot of hard work back home with my coach Denis McDade…you always feel like you’re working towards something with all the practice that we do together, and its a big confidence boost this week, long overdue.”

McDade coached Fraser through the VIS Program and the early part of his professional career, when he earned his first European Tour win at the Russian Open in 2003. After a break of a few years from McDade in which he struggled with his game to the point where he contemplated quitting it altogether, Fraser decided to return to his old coach and get back to what he knew worked for him. The result is the biggest victory of his professional career to date, over a field that included major champions Ernie Els and Y.E Yang and some of the best players in the world including Henrik Stenson and Anthony Kim.

Fraser mentioned how a return to his old coach with whom he had enjoyed so much success as an amateur revitalized his game and gave him the confidence that he was on the right track:

“I had 4 wins in my first year as a professional and I expected a lot of myself…for some reason I stopped seeing him (McDade), don’t know why I did that..but it’s all water under the bridge for us now and we’re working hard to get another win.”

McDade was understandably thrilled with Fraser’s performance: “It’s just incredibly satisfying for me to see Marcus break through this way…we all know he’s got the talent to compete on this level and it was just a matter of working together to build his confidence up and keep putting himself in contention. A lot of hard work has gone into this, including via Skype this week! Absolutely over the moon.”

You can listen to the full audio clip of Marcus Fraser’s post-victory interview on the European Tour site by clicking this link:

Marcus Fraser has completed a 7 year journey back into the winner’s circle on the European Tour by winning the Ballantines Championship on Deju Island in South Korea.

The Victorian shot a final round of 69 to win the weather-shortened 54 hole event by an impressive 4 shot margin at 12 under par. He beat an impressive field which included the likes of Ernie Els, Anthony Kim, Y.E Yang and some of the best players on the European Tour.

“It’s unbelievable, I don’t know how I did that today. It has blown me away,” said Fraser. Clearly emotional and relieved after finally closing the deal, Fraser admitted he has had his fair share of struggles and doubts over the last 7 years or so:

“Probably three or four years ago, I thought about giving it away,” he added. “I was playing terrible. Golf swing wasn’t improving and everything wasn’t really getting any better.

“I thought I was wasting my time and you really start to question yourself, whether you think that you should be out here or whether you deserve to be out here. I went through a patch like that and luckily I went back and saw my old coach that I used to see when I was an amateur, and we got things moving in the right direction.

He was quick to give credit to his coach Denis McDade of Bann Lynch Golf:

“It’s been a lot of hard work over the last couple of years to get back to this position. My last win was when I was coached by Denis McDade, and I’ve had another win today, still being coached by him. So I think we’ve done a lot of things to keep things moving in the right direction.”

We will have more on this story soon. Congratulations to Marcus from all of us here at Bann Lynch Golf!

Sunday 7th March| K.J Choi continued his recent run of strong play with a 2nd place finish behind compatriot Noh Seung-yul at the Maybank Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The experienced South Korean lovingly called “the tank” by his peers handled the severe heat and humidity impressively to finish at 13 under par for the tournament. Choi birdied the final hole to put pressure on the 18 year old Noh coming down the par 5 18th tied for the lead. After taking an adventurous route on the 18th which included playing through the crowds after taking relief from the practice putting green, Noh hit a clutch pitch to 3 feet and sank the putt for birdie to win by one.

Choi, however, will take plenty of positives from a week which saw him continue to strike the ball extremely well, only to fall short (and only just) with the putter. When asked if he was disappointed at not winning he said:

“No I’m not disappointed at all. I played well and tried my best. My hats off to Seung-yul (Noh), he played well and had a fantastic round. I’m happy with how my game has improved and I have a lot to look forward to. The pin positions were tough but I held my game and managed to be in contention. Noh played brilliantly and I have no complaints.”

To his credit, Choi showed some great spirit by joining in the celebrations with young Noh as he closed out the win. He joined his Korean compatriots in showering the winner with water- a Korean tradition.

Choi enjoyed great support all week from the crowds at the Kuala Lumpur Golf Club, who seemed to adopt him as an honorary Malaysian for the week. After struggling with his game last year, Choi has started off 2010 in positive fashion with some encouraging results on the US PGA Tour including a T15 at the Farmers Insurance Open and T20 and T21 finishes at the Mayakoba Golf Classic and the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am respectively.

Choi’s coach Steve Bann has been predicting a strong run of play from him in the last few weeks, having seen his game improve significantly in their practice sessions:

“K.J is starting to look scary good in practice. He has gained about a club in distance and is absolutely striping it. He just needs a little bit of tidying up here and there and we’ll be good to go. He is too good a player to be outside the top 50 in the world and I am confident he will be right back where he belongs in no time. I am very pleased with his progress and just excited to see him complete the final step of the Confidence Cycle and bring it onto the course in competition for 4 straight rounds.”

A big thanks to our friends at Pure Golf Blog for this story.