Ewen Ferguson off to strong start in Korea but season is over for fellow Scot

The three-time tour winner turned in level par, mixing two birdies with two bogeys, after starting at the tenth in the $4 million event at Woo Jeong Hills Country Club in Cheonan.

But, after following a birdie at the par-4 first with a burst of three gains on the spin from the fourth, he ended up signing for a four-under-par 67. That left the 29-year-old sitting just two shots off the lead as the pace was set by China’s Haotong Li and home player MK Kim.

“I didn’t do that well on the front nine, but you can’t have everything go your way all the time, so I wasn’t really bothered at all by that,” admitted Ferguson. “I made a nice putt on one to go one under and that calmed me down before I made an unbelievable par on three. I then had a birdie putt on the next hole and you feel good over it, so I managed to get the momentum on my side and it ended up being a solid day.”

Even though he is based in Dubai and had a direct flight to Korea, Ferguson had been struggling with jetlag earlier in the week. “That has been annoying,” he admitted, laughing, though, as he described it as “just another tournament” for players on the global circuit. “Last night was my first night getting a full night’s sleep and I felt really good today,” he added.

Li, who produced his best performance of the year when finishing joint-fourth behind Scottie Scheffler in The 153rd Open at Royal Portrush, opened with a polished bogey-free effort while Kim signed for eight birdies. “The greens are tricky and so is the course as you are going in with a lot of mid-irons,” observed Ferguson. “It’s not as though you are going in with wedge and having lots of birdie chances. You are going in with 6 and 7-irons and there are some long par 3s with water. There are no gimme birdies - you’ve got to go out and make them.”

Ferguson sits 42nd in the Race to Dubai Rankings and is almost certain to be teeing up in next month’s big-money Play-Off events - the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.

Scot’s sights set on two ‘big tournaments’ in UAE

“I’ve got a couple of big tournaments coming up at home,” said the Bearsden man of now being based in the UAE, “so you want to do well in those.”

Calum Hill fared next best out of the Scots with a 70, two shots better than Scott Jamieson while Connor Syme opened with 74. Richie Ramsay was one under after eight holes when he was forced to retire due to an injury, meaning his 2025 campaign is now over.

In the battle to finish in the top 115 in the Race to Dubai, it was a disappointing day for Adam Scott as a 73 dropped him two spots in the projected rankings and also Yannick Paul, who started out sitting 116th but is now down to 119th after an error-strewn 79.