Round one is not quite complete as play has been suspended due to darkness at the Volvo China Open.
I expect the scores to be low on this course with it's wide fairways and soft greens. Led by Dougie Donnelly the Scottish commentator for the Euro Tour's golf coverage on the Golf Channel, the broadcast crew have been critical of the slow play with Paddy Harrington being the poster boy. Harrington had to stand in a pond to play his 2nd shot on the 7th hole and he waited til both his playing partners had played before he started to decide exactly how he was going to play the shot, eventually taking off his socks and shoes, rolling up his pants and chipping out into the fairway
Their point and it is a valid one is that he should have made that decision while his partners were playing, especially when play had been delayed for an hour due to fog.
However here is the report from China on today's play courtesy of europeantour.com
Han Chang-won enjoyed the best day of his fledgling professional career to lead the Volvo China Open after the opening round in Chengdu.
An eight under par 64 put the 19 year old Korean a shot clear of Northern Ireland’s Gareth Maybin, Welshman Bradley Dredge, England’s James Morrison, Dane Søren Kjeldsen and also Keith Horne – although the South African still had four holes to play after bad light forced play to be suspended.
The former Asian Amateur Champion – who confirmed his potential by winning the OneAsia Tour’s Qualifying School - started at the tenth and had two birdies on the way out, before adding further gains on the first and fourth.But it was a run of four straight birdies over the closing stretch that brought him home in 30 and propelled him to the top of the leaderboard .
“It’s very good weather and I got a bit lucky today,” said Han, for whom this is a first campaign in the professional ranks. “I missed a few easy shots but most of the time I was perfect and hit the fairways and got close to the pins. “Luxehills is a good course and I really like it. The greens and fairways are in good condition and we have good weather. When I played in Masters in America the conditions were like this.
“I’ve been playing golf for nine years. I’ve only been professional from this year.“I look up to both K J Choi and Y E Yang. I always think about them and would like to win like them.”
New Zealander Michael Campbell also continued his recent improvement with a five under par 67.The former US Open Champion made only four cuts in two years after a string of injury woes.But he reached the weekend for the first time in 2011 at the Sicilian Open a month ago and has since finished 19th in Morocco and 35th in Malaysia.
And Campbell revealed his renaissance has been in no small part down to an Olympic rowing legend.
“It’s just getting advice from people who have been there. Sir Steve Redgrave and I had a chat about six months ago sharing a car together at the Dunhill Links last year. “We went from Carnoustie to St Andrews which is about 45minutes so it was very inspiring 45minutes talking to Steve. He’s great and very supportive.
“I’ve known Steve for a long time maybe six years. I always wanted to talk to Steve about it. He had to wait every four years to win his golds so patience was his biggest issue. “The thing I took from his conversation was once you’ve tasted, once you’ve been there you can do it again. There’s no reason why you can’t.”
Spain's Sergio Garcia continued his good recent form with a six under par round, while three-time Major winner Padraig Harrington shot a one under 71.
Bryan Angus also on twitter @mummmbles
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