Euro Tour Alternate Shoots 66 Carrying Own Bag, And That's The Least Bizarre Thing About The Hong Kong Open's First Round

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Now, I know a lot of you are not too impressed that a member of the white belt set posted a 66 in the Hong Kong Open lugging his bulky tour bag. But the circumstances around Lam Chih Bing's 66 were rather extraordinary and will not go down as the finest in European Tour operations history.

Alvin Sallay of the South China Morning Post story merely touches on the oddity of Bing's round, which left him in a tie for third, two shots behind David Higgins.

Higgins leads by one from Italy's Andrea Pavan and by two shots from a bunch of seven players, including Singaporean Lam Chih Bing, who was second on the reserve list, but found himself suddenly in the thick of the action after Finland's Joonas Granberg was disqualified for not making his tee-off time after his caddie had gone to the wrong tee.

Lam still might not have made it if not for his friend Anthony Kang, the first alternate, deciding to caddy for Unho Park thinking that no place would open up. All this added to the surreal surroundings on the opening day.

But GolfCentralDaily's Donal Hughes (Twitter: golfcentraldoc) reports that the situation was far more bizarre, with Joonas Granberg the victim of a DQ and Jeppe Huldahl trying to replace Granberg before getting stopped from starting because he's not an Asian Tour member, opening the door for Lam.

It kicked off when Joonas Granberg was left standing on his first tee box, the 11th, about to start.  His caddie had gone to another tee (presumably the first or tenth) with his clubs, leaving Granberg holding his putter and panicking as the clock ticked up to then past the official tee off time.  With several referees scrambling about, Granberg’s caddie eventually made it to the tee, three minutes too late.  The luckless Fin was summarily disqualified and sent on the long journey home.  “It was like something out of a nightmare,” the fellow player who witnessed the entire incident said.

Had Granberg had his wits about him, he could have teed off using his putter, but such was the calamitous scene, the moment passed.  Understandably he took his frustration out on his golf bag before leaving the tee.

And then the fun began!

Then first reserve Jeppe Huldahl is called to the tee, gets there and is about to drive off when he is stopped mid swing and told to step aside.  The Dane turns around in shock as he too is ushered off the tee and told the first reserve must come from the Asian Tour.

With that player, Chih Bin LAM, nowhere to be found, officials scurry off to find him and the other two players drive off.  Eventually LAM is found and runs onto the tee in a sweat carrying his own bag.   He smashes one away then runs down the fairway to catch up with his playing partners who were preparing to hit their second shots.

And a good time was had by all!

Noticeable Uptick In Americans At European Tour Q-School

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Steve Elling talks to the American duo of Peter Uihlein and Brooks Koepka about their successful run of golf in Europe. With the new PGA Tour structure that requires Web.com Tour play to graduate to the big tour, and even then with no guarantee of the chance to play, Europe may increasingly become an answer.

This was eye-opening:

In 2011/12 combined, 85 Americans signed up for European Q-School. This year alone, 83 entered. Moreover, three Americans made it to the finals last year, while 11 are playing for a full tour card this week in Spain.

And...

“People say BK and I are trailblazers, but it’s also the changes with the Web.com that are a big part of this,” Uihlein said.

European Q-School chief Mike Stewart said American players have cited the lack of direct access as a huge reason for their record presence in at the final stage in Spain, plus the fact that Q-School in the States costs roughly US$5,000 (Dh18,400). European Q-school costs half as much at £1,350 (Dh7,879). The third reason was both popular and easy.

“I suspect that the success of Uihlein and Koepka has also played a part,” Stewart said in an email from Spain.

World Match Play Returning To England?

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Once a staple of the European Tour schedule, the Volvo World Match Play may be coming back as a fall event, reports Derek Lawrenson in the Daily Mail.

As for venue and location, IMG's Guy Kinnings suggests an English venue would be preferred.

‘We’re excited to be returning to the October date and our hope is that this will mean a return to the UK,’ said Guy Kinnings, global head of IMG Golf, who promote the event.

Kinnings is a passionate advocate for another tour event in England, so fingers crossed.

Sergio Believes The Days Of Fried Chicken Jokes Are Behind Him

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Shane O'Donoghue got Sergio for a one-on-one to talk about the state of all things Garcia and to find out what exactly he learned from uttering a racially insensitive joke at Wentworth last May, which subsequently led to embarrassing remarks from European Tour Commish George O'Grady.

"I didn't mean it in a bad way. When I was driving back to the hotel, I started thinking about it," Garcia told Shane O'Donoghue.

Nice to know the dead silence in the room took that long to sink in! Oh, and it's still Steve Sands' fault.

"Obviously, I didn't expect that question at all and you try to be funny and it comes out the wrong way I guess," he added.

And Mr. Contrite:

"It was horrible, but what's done is done. Everybody knows how I feel about it, so I think they should be fine with it and if not, it's kind of their problem," he said.

"The most important thing is learning from all those things.

"I'm making sure that all those experiences make you stronger, a better person and things like that. I think that I've learned from those things and I just need to keep getting better at it, and hopefully keep making people happy."

If you have sixty seconds or so of your life to never to enjoy again: