HONG KONG OPEN | REVIEW
All of a
Sudden Winner I'm the HK Open
Scott Hend recounts his gutsy performance in claiming the biggest event of his career to date after another Fanling thriller. As told to Alex Jenkins. Photography by Daniel Wong, Charles McLaughlin and Kimi Tai
Scott Hend prepares to putt for a par on the 72nd hole of regulation after playing a brilliant bunker shot to within five feet of the par. The Australian would make the putt to force a play-off with Angelo Que of the Philippines. 40
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L Clockwise from top: Hend became the first Australian to win the Hong Kong Open since Greg Norman in 1983; Que tees off at Fanling's famous closing hole; Hend and caddie Tony Carolan wait for Marcus Fraser to hole out at the driveable par-4 10th 42
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ooking at the stats my form was poor heading into the Hong Kong Open. I missed five cuts in six tournaments and wasn’t driving the ball well at all. I went to Bangkok and got my old driver back off of a mate. I had been using a Callaway driver but cracked the face, so I went back to my old faithful – a Titleist 910. I also had a new set of irons in the bag – the 714 muscle backs, also from Titleist. I had actually been swinging the club really well but the tee ball was killing me. The driver is such an important club. It’s hard to play when you’re coming out of the trees all the time. You can only do so much and you’re not going to be making too many birdies when you keep leaving yourself 40ft putts. I kept missing cuts by a shot or two. There’s very fine line between feeling like you’re playing good and feeling like you’re
battling, and going back to my old driver gave me the confidence I needed. Normally at Fanling, if I shoot anything in the 60s I’m absolutely stoked. There have been so many times when I’ve felt like I’ve played well and shot 70 or 71. The cut always seems to be even or one-under, and all of a sudden, I’m on the cut line. So to get off to the start I did this time was nice. I played very solidly for the 67 in the first round and I was very happy. People say that Fanling is not my sort of course, and they’re probably exactly right. But if you’re a power player like me and you’re able to manage to harness what you’ve got in your golf game, you can score. I used a fair few 3-irons off the tee; the funny thing is I only used the driver a couple of times per day, on the par-5s. But going with the 3-iron worked. My caddie Tony and I decided that leaving myself further back and taking an extra club or two into the greens HKGOLFER.COM
was fine. In fact, hitting 8 or 9-irons into the greens instead of half a lob wedge was in some ways easier because of the tightness of the turf. The fuller shots worked a lot better. A word about Tony: we’ve known each other for a long time and he has been a settling influence on me. We trust each other when it comes to clubs and yardages completely, so he’s been a great help. Fanling played a little differently this year. The rough was downright nasty and you could find yourself in some pretty tough lies around the greens. The eighth hole in particular – the rough was three or four inches deep at the back of the green there. But the course was set up fantastically, really immaculate. I played the first three rounds really well, and to have the 66 on Friday and the 67 on Saturday put me one behind Marcus Fraser, the leader, heading into the final round. Unfortunately for ‘Frase’ he caught a bad lie on the first hole on Sunday and made a double. I made a great up and down to save par which I felt was really important. It set me up well, although all of a sudden I go on this run of birdies and bogeys. I did make a great up and down on the seventh, which was actually better than the up and down I would later make on the 18th in regulation, but it wasn’t until the par-4 10th where I really made a good move. We had a bit of a wait on the tee but then I striped a 3-wood and nearly holed it! A two-putt for birdie there really got me going. I then birdied the 12th, although I did make a mistake at the 13th, an easy par-5, by not picking up a shot. HKGOLFER.COM
Normally at Fanling, if I shoot anything in the 60s I’m absolutely stoked. There have been so many times when I’ve felt like I’ve played well and shot 70 or 71. HK GOLFER・NOV 2014
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I wasn’t really nervous during the round. I was feeling the butterflies a bit before teeing off, but once you get out there you just fall into the groove of what you do. Even in the playoff I felt at ease and comfortable. The 14th, where I holed a nice putt for birdie, was key, especially after the error at the previous hole, but then I had a really good opportunity for birdie at 17 which would have given me the outright lead. No excuses there though – I just plain pulled it. On to the 18th and I hit 3-iron because I didn’t want to get down to the bottom of the slope and into a sandy lie; I wanted a nice full shot. The pin was cut front right, which it usually is on the final day, and we’ve all seen over the years guys make big mistakes there. I had 141 44
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metres [154 yards] to the front of the green, and my 9-iron goes exactly 141 metres. I wanted to land it just over the bunker but the moment I hit it I knew it was a bit ‘spinny’, and it came up two yards short and plugged in the face. Although the ball wasn’t lying great I wasn’t too worried. Without sounding too big-headed about this, I rate myself as one of the better bunker players around. I’ve probably hit 20,000 bunker shots in my life; the shot wasn’t beyond me. But I am proud of it. The ball came out perfectly and rolled up to five feet. To then hole the putt and secure the place in the play-off was awesome. I suppose I can look back at it now and say it was a career shot. I wasn’t really nervous during the round. I was feeling the butterflies a bit before teeing off, but once you get out there you just fall into the groove of what you do. Even in the play-off I felt at ease and comfortable. HKGOLFER.COM
So Angelo and I head back to the 18th tee for the first play-off hole and I again hit 3-iron, only this time I’m two yards closer to the green. I then hit 9-iron over the bunker and onto the green, which is of course what I should have done the first time. I don’t know if Angelo was going for the pin, but there’s a lot of trouble in front of that green. It’s not a good place to be. Despite that, I was not at that stage foolish enough to think I had won the tournament. It’s funny, but what I was thinking about in the play-off was what Lin Wen-tang did to Rory [McIlroy, in 2008] with his miracle shot from the tees. I also thought about when Rory holed his bunker shot [in 2011]. Amazing things happen on that hole, so I was still very much in match play mode and felt like Angelo could still make par or even birdie. When it came to my putt it just kept rolling. I definitely didn’t want to leave myself a downhill HKGOLFER.COM
three-footer, and where I ended up – about five feet below the hole – left me with easiest putt on the green. After Angelo missed his effort for par I had the putt to win the biggest tournament of my career. I hit it exactly where I wanted to and despite taking a little bit of a bobble, it snuck in there on the left-hand side for a four. All of a sudden I’m the Hong Kong Open winner! I didn’t spend too long celebrating afterwards. I headed straight to Macau where I was the defending champion. The reason is simple: I know too many lunatics in Hong Kong and they know how to party. The verandah at the Hong Kong Golf club is one of the best places in the whole of the golfing world, but a Sunday evening spent there, with free-flow Stella Artois on the go, also makes it quite a dangerous place to be. I didn’t want an epic hangover! It wa s t he r ig ht way to end a t r u ly fantastic week.
Thanks to his win, Hend (top) now has playing rights on the European Tour, something he is keen to take advantage of; Hend made no mistake in the play-off, drilling this 9-iron safely onto the green (opposite) HK GOLFER・NOV 2014
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