SOUTH Korea's flagship golf event tees off under a cloud on Thursday after fears of an attack by nuclear-armed North Korea depleted the field and forced organisers to seek advice on safety.
The $US2.8 million ($A2.75 million) Ballantine's Championship is the golf-crazy country's only European Tour tournament but the competition was rocked this week by the withdrawal of US stars Zach Johnson and Dustin Johnson over "perceived unrest".
The European Tour said it was "disappointed" by the decision and added that it was in touch with Britain's Foreign Office, which had indicated there was no increased risk in visiting South Korea despite high tensions with the North.
The neighbouring countries have been locked in an elevating row since the North carried out its third atomic test in February, with hostile exchanges including threats of nuclear war and precision missile strikes.
On Wednesday, South Africa's Louis Oosthuizen, the top-ranked player in the field at world No.7, said he'd received reassurances from his management and the European Tour and that "everything is fine in the end".
"I think something drastically needed to go wrong for me not to come," Oosthuizen told reporters.
"And I am glad I came."
Zach Johnson, the 2007 Masters champion, and Dustin Johnson, a two-time Ryder Cup player known for prodigious length off the tee, had been marketed as two of the tournament's headline acts.
Oosthuizen, the 2010 British Open champion, leads the field along with South Korea's YE Yang, whose US PGA Championship victory in 2009 made him Asia's first major winner.
Ryder Cup veterans Paul Lawrie, Paul Casey and Thomas Bjorn, along with Paul McGinley, European captain for the team tournament's 2014 edition, have also confirmed their attendance.
Austrian Bernd Wiesberger is the defending champion. He earned his first European Tour victory at the event last year and won the Austrian national championship three months later.
In his most recent European Tour appearance last month, Wiesberger tied for fifth in Morocco, his first top-10 finish of 2013.
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