Haiyang: China national team player Alex Wu Ashun was among a trio of players sitting atop the leaderboard following the first round of the China Tour’s Shandong leg at Tiger Beach Golf Links.
Playing under severely windy conditions, the 20-year-old amateur Wu shot a one-under 71 on the links layout of Tiger Beach to finish deadlocked with Huang Mingjie and Yuan Hao in the US$100,000 tournament.
Zheng Shaoguang was alone in fourth after a 73, while Liu Anda and Liu Qiang were a shot further back. China No. 1 Zhang Lianwei and Li Chao, the two top players in the field, were in a group of six players, four shots off the pace.
Wu, who has been training with the national team in Guangdong in preparation for this December’s Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, bogeyed his second and third holes but came back with three birdies to make the turn at 1-under 35. On the more difficult back nine of the Tiger Beach layout, his one birdie was offset by a bogey to preserve his one-under score.
Yuan, a 26-year-old from Guangdong, opened with an erratic opening nine that featured three birdies, an eagle, a bogey and a double bogey. He settled down on the back with one birdie and two bogeys.
“Throughout the tour, the skill level of the players has, to a certain extent, improved,” said Yuan who finished fourth in Hainan and equal sixth in the Zhuhai earlier this year. “It was a tough day today because of the wind.”
Sichuan native Huang said the wind was so strong that his ball was moving on the green at times. The 25-year-old finished strongly with birdies on three of his last four holes after making the turn at 38.
“Earlier in the day my performance wasn’t great. It was better later in the day. The wind was very strong and my ball was moving around. In the afternoon the wind calmed a little. Hitting a 71 in these conditions makes me very happy.”
Zhang, the country’s golf pioneer and current Order of Merit leader on the China Tour, held it together under the windy conditions on the front nine to make the turn at even par. He then bogeyed the 10th, the first of three he would record on the back nine.
Shanghai-based Li Chao, the China Tour Order of Merit winner last year, also struggled late in his round, three putting twice on his final two holes. “I’m going to switch my five wood and my putter,” he lamented. “I’m the head coach of myself. It’s just like the World Cup. If you go out there and can’t score then you get substituted. That’s what I am going to do with my putter.”