TYPHOON SAMBA HALTS PLAY ON ASIAN TOUR

NEWS RELEASE FROM ASIAN TOUR

Play for the second round of the Yeangder Tournament Players Championship (TPC) has been called off again due to Typhoon Sanba making landfall in Taipei on Saturday.

Play was unplayable due to weather and course conditions at the Linkou International Golf and Country Club and tournament officials have decided to reduce the US$500,000 event into a 54-stroke play tournament.

“The extremely wet and windy conditions made it a challenge for play to continue today. The safety of our players going out to the course was also another priority. As such, we have taken the decision to abandon play for today,” said Wanchai Meechai, Asian Tour’s Tournament Director for the Yeangder TPC.

 

“All players will return on Sunday morning 8am to complete their rounds where the forecast is for much calmer conditions. We are also not ruling out a Monday finish so that we can get all 54 holes played,” added Wanchai.

 

Philippines’ Angelo Que holds the clubhouse lead with his first round seven-under-par 65 while American Jason Knutzon, who was even-par through nine holes, took a share of second place alongside India Gangajeet Bhullar.

 

Chinese Taipei’s Lin Wen-tang is in fourth place after an opening 67 while India’s Anirban Lahiri is one back in fifth place on 68.

The Yeangder TPC will be celebrating its third edition this week and the full-field Asian Tour event has raised its profile further following a significant increase in its total prize fund to a record US$500,000 this year.

 

Singapore’s Koh Dengshan, who was one-over after three holes before play was abandoned, remained unperturbed by the weather conditions.

 

“This is expected of the weather in Taipei and before I came, I was already mentally prepared for these kinds of conditions. There’s nothing much you can do except to go back there again and play your best when the weather conditions are much,” said Koh.

 

The Yeangder TPC also celebrated the magical aces of Knutzon and Chinese Taipei’s Lu Wen-teh, who won for themselves an Audemars Piguet watch and a cash prize of US$10,000 respectively

 

Kuntzon had the honour of recording the event’s first hole-in-one on the fifth hole on Thursday while Lu added the second on the par-three 11^th on Friday.