We take a look inside the bag of
Bernd Wiesberger
to see how he managed to become the third Austrian to win on The European Tour after a sparkling display at the Ballantine’s Championship.
The win makes Wiesberger the sixth first time winner of the 2012 season, and continues a strong run of results for former Challenge Tour graduates who account for three quarters of the tournament victories so far this year.
This Korean success also saw the newly crowned Ballantine’s champion better his previous best finish on Tour, that being a tie for second last year in both the SA Open Championship and Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles, losing in a thrilling five man play-off in the latter to eventual winner Thomas Björn.
His talent was therefore clear, and it is no surprise that he finally tasted victory but the interesting thing to note is what makes the difference between valiant runner-up and tournament victor. One of the main reasons in this instance was the 26 year old Austrian’s ability to keep mistakes off his card, playing the final 59 holes in Korea without dropping a shot.
This was thanks in part to some impressive accuracy stats for the week, ranking 12th in Greens in Regulation in the Genworth Statistics and hitting 76.4% of his targets in the right number or less. His putting also caught the eye, ranking 11th with 1.682 in Putts per GIR and averaging 27.8 Putts per Round to rank 2nd for the week.
Compare these numbers with his season stats in 2012 and there is a clear improvement. So far he has hit less greens on average ranking 74th on The Tour with 72.2% per round, while he also ranks worse on Putts per GIR with 1.822 to rank 143rd, and averages 30.1 on Putts per Round to rank 98th. These numbers are not massively different, but proof of the small margins that can define a player’s career and be the difference between mere good form, and tournament victories.
This can be seen in the stats from both his second place finishes in 2011, where he finished worse again in all three categories mentioned, than he did this last week at Blackstone GC. This deficit was not large, but enough to keep him from the title in both cases.
So in this instance, greater accuracy into the greens and a sweeter touch with the putter has made the difference, resulting with Bernd Wiesberger ascending to the status of tournament winner on The European Tour.
Here is what he had in his bag:
