Que fires 71 in 1st round of fog-delayed Ballantine's Championship

Jeju Island, Korea — Angelo Que shot a one-under-par 71 to join compatriot Mars Pucay and 18 others in 49th place at the opening round of the $2.9 million Ballantine’s Championship held at the Pinx Golf Club. Que, who was one of the three second placers in the Mercedes-Benz Masters Philippines, was among the early finishers before play was stopped due to the presence of thick fog. He is six adrift of early leader Marcus Fraser of Australia. Fraser grabbed the temporary lead after firing a seven-under-par 65 for a one-stroke advantage over Mark Foster of England. Que immediately buckled down to work with two quick birdies on the first two and two holes later dropped a shot with a bogey on the fourth. He coasted to pars on his way to a one-under at the turn. Full of determination the way started, he began the final nine hot again with another birdie at the 10th.The 31-year-old ex-Philippine Open winner missed on a couple of birdie chances in the next three holes which were followed by a terrible bogey mishap on the par-three 14th. Que, now on 12th place in the Asian Tour’s Order of Merit, swiftly erased his bogey with a birdie on No. 15. Looking to end up strong, he carefully carded regulation pars on the 16th and 17th but got side-tracked with a closing bogey for that 71. He was the only Filipino who actually teed-off and played 18 for the day while majority of the participants were affected by the weather disturbance for five hours, which was, according to locals, usual in the island surrounded by beach waters. Behind Fraser and Foster was Korea’s Ted Oh with a five-under 67 for a share of third with Australia’s Rick Kulacz and Wales’ Jamie Donaldson, who were at five-under through 17 and 16 holes, respectively. Singapore’s Mardan Mamat posted a four-under 68 for eighth with Thailand’s Prayad Marksaeng, Ernie Els of South Africa and American Anthony Kim. Fraser who marked his card with three birdies in his opening four holes, added another two on holes eight and nine to make the turn in 31. The Australian continued to post another two more birdies on holes 10 and 13 to storm home with that 65. "It was just one of those days where I felt like I did a lot of things right, and managed to make a few putts when I had to. It's nice when the round turns out that way and would be even nicer if you can play like that all the time," said Fraser. – Adrian Flores, GMANews.TV