Carballo mounts fightback to win

Carballo, who topped the Asian Development Tour (ADT) Order of Merit last year, found himself in a similar position on the leaderboard when he closed with a flawless five-under-par 67 to clinch his maiden Asian Tour title by three shots over Korea’s Yikuen Chang with his winning total of 17-under-par 271 at the Pondok Indah Golf Course.

The Argentinian is the ninth player on the ADT to go on to win on the Asian Tour and his three-shot victory is the largest margin on the Asian Tour so far this season.

Carballo stormed off the blocks quickly with an opening birdie before adding two more birdies on holes four and six to his card. 

After making the turn in 33, he birdied again on the 10th before an audacious 30-foot putt from the edge of the green on 13 saw him make another birdie which gave him the outright lead after overnight leader Naraajie Emerald Ramadhan Putra of Indonesia three-putted for a bogey there.

With Naraajie dropping six more shots in his last five holes and Carballo remaining rock solid with five straight pars coming home, victory for the Argentinian soon became a foregone conclusion.

Chang enjoyed his best result on Tour this season when he signed off with a 64 to take outright second place while compatriot Joohyung Kim, who won his second ADT title in Indonesia last week, was left to rue two dropped shots in his last three holes and had to settle for third place.

Indonesia was left to wait longer for another homegrown champion as Naraajie struggled to a 78 to end his week in fourth place. 

Kasiadi continues to remain as the only Indonesian golfer to have won his country’s National open when he lifted the trophy in 1989.

Did you know?

• Argentinian Miguel Angel Carballo won the Asian Development Tour (ADT) Order of Merit in 2018 to secure a card for this year’s Asian Tour season.
• A two-time champion on the ADT, Carballo won the Singha Laguna Phuket Open in 2019 and the Ciputra Golfpreneur Tournament in 2018.
• Since turning pro in 2002 the 40-year-old Argentinian has also won twice on the Korn Ferry Tour, the 2007 Movistar Panama Championship and the 2011 Children's Hospital Classic. 
• His best year on that Tour was in 2011 when he finished 10th on the Money List securing a card for the 2012 PGA Tour, where he also played in 2014 and 2016-2017.
• The Bank BRI Indonesia Open is the first cut Carballo has made in six starts on this year’s Asian Tour season.
• With this win, Carballo became the second Argentinian to win on the Asian Tour following Angel Cabrera’s victory at the 2007 Barclays Singapore Open.
• He made pars or better in his last 49 holes of the tournament, his lone bogey of the event came on the fifth hole of the second round.
• Yikeun Chang topped the Asian Tour Qualifying School in 2016 in his second attempt. He missed the mark in his first attempt in 2014. Chang, however, did not manage to keep his card for 2017 as he finished 101st on the 2016 Order of Merit.
• The Korean regained his card at the 2017 Qualifying School after finishing tied-eighth. He ended the season in 48th place on the Merit rankings and kept his card for 2018.
• In 2017, Chang won his National Open for his first professional title after prevailing on the third play-off hole. That victory earned him a coveted spot at The Open at Royal Birkdale that year where he made his Major debut.
• Prior to his performance this week, Chang’s previous best result was a tied-12th finish at the season-opening Singapore Open in January.
• The 17-year-old Joohyung Kim is fresh off a win at last week’s Ciputra Golfpreneur Tournament on the Asian Development Tour (ADT), his second win of the year on that Tour after claiming the PGM ADT Championship @ Tiara Melaka in June.
• With those two wins included, he is currently on a stretch of nine top-four finishes in his last 12 events spread between the ADT and the All Thailand Golf Tour (ATGT).
• Kim is currently second on the ADT Order of Merit with US$41,228 in earnings and on track to secure a card for the 2020 Asian Tour season via the ADT. One more ADT win this season would earn the young Korean a “battlefield promotion” onto the Asian Tour.
• Before turning professional, Kim won twice in the Philippines as an amateur, The Philippine Amateur Open Championship and the W Express RVF Cup Amateur Championship, both in the first half of 2018.
• Naraajie Emerald Ramadhan Putra is currently ranked the number one amateur in Indonesia and number 163 in the world.
• He finished tied-second in this year’s Putra Cup, the South East Asian Golf Amateur Championship, in Hanoi, Vietnam.
• The 19-year-old was in contention after three rounds of last year’s Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship but settled for tied-24th after carding a 77 in the final round.
• Naraajie won two professional events on the Indonesian Golf Tour during the 2018 season.
• It would have been the first time an amateur had won a full-field Asian Tour event since Chinnarat Phadungsil won the Double A International Open in 2005, and the first time in any Asian Tour event since Danny Lee won the 2009 Johnnie Walker Classic had Naraajie won the Bank BRI Indonesia Open
• He would also have joined an exclusive group of players that have won their National Open as an amateur. The last amateur to have done that was Shane Lowry when he won the Irish Open in 2009.

Players’ Quotes

Miguel Carballo (Arg) Fourth round 67 (-5) Total 271 (-17)
I’m very happy and this has been a fantastic week. Especially so after winning for the first time on the Asian Tour. My focus today was just to play good and try to go under-par. I felt it was possible and unfortunately for Naraajie, he did not play well and I capitalized on it. The game started to change on 13 when I made a birdie and he made a bogey there. Golf is starting to become popular in Argentina. Angel Cabrera won two Majors- The Masters and US Open and Roberto de Vincenzo won the British open long time ago, it’s very popular but not too much in argentina. We have very good players but there are not many golf tournaments in the country. The best player now is Emiliano Grillo but maybe now I can be either second or third. My schedule’s going to change now that I’m a winner on the Asian Tour and I’ll most definitely be playing a lot over here now.

Yikuen Chang (Kor) Fourth round 64 (-8) Total 274 (-14)
I’ve been struggling for a long time especially with my ball striking and putting and I needed a solid results like this to regain my confidence. I practiced a lot and I seemed to have found something in my game again. I worked with my coach and I felt more comfortable this week. I was hitting a lot of good shots this week. My putting was not the best but I putted really well today. I need to play well especially since my main sponsor’s event, Shinhan Donghae Open is coming up and I really want to be well prepared and do well in that event. Hopefully I play well next week which will give me the momentum to do even better then.

Joohyung Kim (Kor) Fourth round 68 (-4) Total 275 (-13)
Coming into this week on the back of a ADT win last week, I just told myself to continue to stay patient. And I thought I managed to do that well especially today but I kind of lost it on the back-nine. I was under pressure as I knew I had a chance to win. And that did get into my head. But overall it has been a good week. I’ve been able to play a couple of Asian Tour events now so I know what it’s like to play here. And to be inside the top-five is just something that really shows how much I’ve improved this year as a player and I’m really looking forward to playing more on the Asian Tour.

Naraajie Emerald Ramadhan Putra (Ina) Fourth round 78 (+6) Total 276 (-12)
I did sleep well last night and I just had a very bad back-nine. I made my second bogey on nine when I pulled my tee shot into the hazard on the left and had to take a penalty there. I just kind of lost my focus on those last six holes.  I’ve learnt a lot this week and hopefully it can bring me to the next step. I’ll be playing an ADT event next month and then the SEA Games at the end of this year.

Jazz Janewattananond (Tha) Fourth round 71 (-1) Total 278 (-10)
I didn’t bring my A game at all and I didn’t have a good putting day. I didn’t have any day where I said oh wow I hit it good today. Basically, I didn’t have any satisfying rounds so I can’t win. I’m just going to go back and work on my game. I have a week off so we’ll see what happens. I’ll come back to the Asian Tour again at Shinhan Donghae Open. But before that, I need to figure out what putter I’ll be using. Hendy is a good player and if he starts to turn his game on it will be a fun race so we’ll see whether he turns his game on or not.

Leading Scores after round 4 of the Bank BRI Indonesia Open 2019 being played at the par 72,7243 Yards Pondok Indah GC course (am - denotes amateur):
271 - Miguel Carballo (ARG) 69-69-66-67.
274 - Yikeun Chang (KOR) 67-75-68-64.
275 - Joohyung Kim (KOR) 69-71-67-68.
276 - Naraajie E. Ramadhanputra (am, INA) 66-69-63-78.
277 - Naoki Sekito (JPN) 68-70-70-69.
278 - Pavit Tangkamolprasert (THA) 69-69-71-69, Daniel Fox (AUS) 70-68-70-70, Kwanchai Tannin (THA) 69-67-71-71, Jazz Janewattananond (THA) 67-71-69-71.
279 - Jarryd Felton (AUS) 70-72-69-68, Natipong Srithong (THA) 71-69-70-69, J.C. Ritchie (RSA) 69-66-74-70, Shiv Kapur (IND) 68-70-71-70, Daniel Van Tonder (RSA) 67-73-69-70, Kosuke Hamamoto (THA) 66-74-68-71.