[caption id="attachment_71381" align="alignright" width="600" caption="Paul McGinley. "]
Every so often, Paul McGinley likes to drop a little forget-me-not, such as the one he issued in the Ballantine’s Championship at Blackstone Golf Club in Seoul, South Korea last week. McGinley really didn’t have a chance to catch runaway winner Bernd Weisberger, but the 9-under-par 279 (71-73-65-70) that he shot entitled him to a share of seventh place, which was nine strokes in back of the Austrian medalist.
The 65 that McGinley signed to on Saturday shared low-round honors with two others, including Weisberger, who also hit that number on Friday. McGinley birdied five of his first six holes on Saturday, and went the rest of the round without a bogey, while clipping two more strokes off par. A double-bogey 6 at the ninth hole on Sunday was his only blemish of that round.
This was only McGinley’s second top-10 finish in the 2010-2012 period; the other was a joint-sixth in last September’s KLM Open.
“A very good week,” McGinley said. “I’m pleased. I played very well. The double bogey at nine took the wind out of my sails a bit, but I regrouped on the back nine. There’s a lot to look forward to [the rest of this season].”
Also going the distance were Shane Lowry, who tied for 32nd place at 284 (74-70-70-70), Gareth Maybin, joint-38th at 286 (72-76-67-71), and Damien McGrane, who shared 61st place at 291 (73-71-73-74).
Darren Clarke missed the cut by one stroke. He shot 149 (77-72), when 148 would have allowed him to play the weekend.
PGA TOUR
The par-3 ninth hole at TPC Louisiana didn’t prevent Graeme McDowell from winning the Zurich Classic, but it did knock him down several pegs on the leaderboard. McDowell couldn’t make par here, taking three bogeys and one double en route to a 57th-place tie in Avondale, La. He fired rounds of 69, 73, 69 and 72 for an aggregate 283 that was five strokes under par and 13 off the low number posted by Jason Dufner and Ernie Els (Dufner won the playoff).
LPGA TOUR
Alison Walshe finished 44th in the LPGA Mobile Bay Classic at the RTJ Trail’s Crossings Course in Mobile, Ala. Her 3-under-par 285 (72-71-70-72) left a 14-stroke gap between the winning score that belonged to Stacy Lewis.
The highlight of the tournament for Walshe was an eagle-3 at the par-5 16th hole on Saturday. The 18th hole (a par-4), however, resulted in a loss of four strokes to par over the event’s duration.
NATIONAL PRO GOLF TOUR
Fergal Rafferty tied for 53rd place in the Florida Cup at Champions Gate International in Florida. Rounds of 72, 70, 72 and 78 left him four strokes over par for the tournament and 19 behind the low number shared by Cyril Bouniol and Tyler Wesorski (Bouniol of France won the playoff).
Chris Devlin, at 150 (76-74), and Tom Conran, at 152 (76-76), missed the cut. A 36-hole score of 146 or better qualified for the final two rounds.
