DP World Tour : Volvo China Open Leaderboard Tee Times
Romain Langasque and Sebastian Söderberg produced flawless opening rounds of 63 to share the lead at the Volvo China Open.
Frenchman Langasque missed the cut at the ISPS HANDA - CHAMPIONSHIP but had been in good form prior, finishing in a tie for fifth at the Hero Indian Open and 21st at the Porsche Singapore Classic in March.
His putter was hot at Hidden Grace Golf Club as he rolled in nine birdies, including a stunning run of seven in a row around the turn to sit at nine under par.
But he was joined by Swede Sebastian Söderberg following his own five-hole birdie stretch at the top of the leaderboard.
Home favourite Li Haotong, who won his event in 2016, was the closest challenger at eight under with a blemish-free 64.
Langasque said: "The last time I played here I finished in fifth place. I like this course and I like the way you have to plot your way round. I’ll be honest and admit that I didn’t believe that I could shoot nine under par today so I’m delighted.
"It gives me confidence that I have played well on this golf course in the past and I felt comfortable out there today. I didn't try too hard today and that approach paid off."
Söderberg leads the Asian Swing Rankings, which concludes here at Hidden Grace Golf Club, and the winner will gain £200,000 in prize money, exemption for the Back 9 events of the DP World Tour campaign and the top three will gain a spot at the US PGA Championship.
"I guess it would be really nice," the Swede said. "It is the first Swing I have been involved in and I'm not really that focused on putting tournaments together like that usually. But obviously it means spots into a Major, then you are paying extra attention to stuff like that."
Li - also starting on the back nine - kickstarted his opening round with successive birdies at the 11th and 12th before adding another at the 17th.
The Chinese player continued his momentum by picking up shots at the second and fourth to climb to five under before he finished with a hat-trick of birdies to move to eight under par.
Frenchman Julien Guerrier and Czech Gordan Brixi were flawless in their rounds of 65, while Italy's Guido Migliozzi carded eight birdies and a bogey for a share of fourth at seven under.
English pair Paul Waring and Marcus Armitage, South African duo Casey Jarvis and Zander Lombard, France's Clément Sordet, Italian Filippo Celli, Swiss Joel Girrbach and India's Shubhankar Sharma sit one shot further adrift.
edit *** Canada's Aaron Cockerill is back in action after a month off T30 -3 69. Starting on #10 he began a roller coaster ride with 3 birdies, 3 bogey's and 3 pars for an unconventional E 36, perhaps a little rusty. However at the turn it was all pars and 3 more birdies for 33.
He begins on the 1st tee at 1300 hours later today.
europeantour.com
Bryan Angus (edit)
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