Singapore: Royal Birkley, just outside the Championship hole at The Serapong, was the daunting 10,700 km that Korea's Jeongwoo Ham conquered in nine draining hours to win the $2 million Singapore Open.
On Sunday, with heavens opening up and oppressive humidity testing the resilience of those on the course, Ham secured a fine wire-to-wire win despite the testing conditions.
Ham started the day with a four-shot lead over Australian Cameron John and when the rain interruption occurred at around 11:47am local time, the leader group had completed seven holes with the Korean three ahead.
The three-and-a-half hour break did little to break their rhythm or resolve with both Ham and John going bogey free on remaining holes.
Ham struck an early birdie on the second hole before making a bogey on the third. The next hole saw him sink another birdie before he produced a flawless back nine with birdies on the 13th, 14th and 18th and parring the rest.
John was equally impressive, going on to nail birdies on the seventh and ninth to make up for the lone blip on the par 4 third. His back nine were even better, with the duo engaging in an absorbing back nine battle.
Ham short-sided himself in the greenside bunker to the right of the pin on 13th but proceeded to hole his bunker shot. John responded with a 40-feet birdie putt to keep the contest alive.
The pair again traded birdies at the par-3 14th to put a five-shot buffer between themselves and the rest of the field, but Ham ensured there were no further slip-ups.
Pukhraj Singh Gill (71-70-72-67) and Gaganjeet Bhullar (67-68-72-73) finished as the best placed Indians at Tied-26th with a total score of 4-under 280.
