Gonzalo Fernandez-Castaño Stays True to Win the Ballantine’s Sponsored BMW Masters
Gonzalo Fernandez-Castaño today showed his true courage and conviction, holding his nerve on the 18th Green to secure the title at the prestigious BMW Masters at Shanghai’s Lake Malaren Golf Club; a prestigious European Tour event also sponsored by Ballantine’s, the world’s No. 2 Scotch whisky.
Gonzalo Fernandez-Castaño shot a four under par final round to finish on eleven under for the Championship, holding off Francesco Molinari and Thongchai Jaidee who both finished ten under par.
Earlier in the week Ballantine’s, which has recently announced a new global marketing campaign ‘Stay True, Leave An Impression’, asked the players at the BMW Masters to write a word that represented what inspired them to ‘Stay True’ and ‘Leave An Impression’ on the game of golf, with a range of answers from family through to patience.
After his performance over the last four days, Fernandez-Castaño’s choice of the word ‘winning’ could not be more appropriate:
“It doesn’t get any better than this. The first event of the first ever Final Series and I got the victory. There’s never a bad time for a victory, but this has been just the perfect one.”
He had not been looking at the leaderboards all day until he first glanced over on the 15th hole and noticed his long name at the top. He afterwards admitted that it affected his game, but he stayed true to himself to earn the victory, despite a double bogey on the final hole:
“You don’t have a three shot advantage that often, so there’s many things going on in your mind. I didn’t want to mess up and I almost did, so it’s a weird feeling! As I said, I’m not used to having a three shot advantage when I’m playing such a big tournament like this, but hopefully I’ll get many more opportunities and next time I’ll do better.
It’s pretty much like playing at home and it’s been great to see the crowds this week – they have been pretty amazing! There’s definitely bigger crowds than in previous years, and that just shows that golf is growing here in China and there is big potential and a bright future ahead.”
To find out more about the Ballantine’s campaign, Stay True, Leave An Impression, as well as Ballantine’s and golf, please go to http://www.ballantines.com/
Caption:
BMW Masters 2013 Champion Gonzalo Fernandez-Castaño is presented with a bottle of Ballantine’s 30 year old whisky by Pernod Ricard Managing Director Horace Ngai.
Notes
About Ballantine’s:
Ballantine’s is the No.1 Scotch whisky in Europe and the No.2 Scotch whisky in the world and the range sells over 70 million bottles a year worldwide. Ballantine’s has won more than 120 trophies and medals at international competition in the past 10 years for quality as a result of its unique richness of character and perfect balance. The range, from Ballantine’s Finest to the exclusive 40 Year Old, is the most extensive in the world of Scotch and is maintained by the latest in a tradition of Master Blenders that dates back to 1827.
Ballantine’s association with golf can be traced back to at least 1960, when the Ballantine’s Tournament took place at Wentworth golf course. More than fifty years later, Ballantine’s sponsors both the BMW Masters and the AAM Scottish Open, and has also been title sponsor of the Ballantine’s Championship and an Official Sponsor of the Omega Mission Hills World Cup in 2009 and 2011.
