PILKADARIS AND CHO SHARE LEAD ON 64 IN SOUTH KOREA

NEWS RELEASE
SEOUL, May 9 - South Korean Cho Min-gyu and Australian Terry Pilkadaris made the most of near-perfect conditions with blistering eight-under-par 64s on Thursday to share a three-shot lead after the first round of OneAsia's GS Caltex Maekyung Open at The Namseoul Country Club on the outskirts of Seoul.

Pilkadaris and Cho both capped remarkable rounds with birdies on the ninth -- their final hole -- to put daylight between them and a  chasing pack that included four South Koreans and an Australian.

Pilkadaris credited a change to his putting stroke made on Sunday for his flawless round, while Cho said he scrambled well.

"The course is in really good nick and the fairways are cut shorter so you're not worried about getting flyers," said Pilkadaris, whose last win came at the Brunei Open in 2005.

The 39-year-old admitted he has struggled around the hilly 6,349 metre (6,943 yard) course in the past, but felt this year that Namseoul was in the best condition he had ever seen it.

"I only made the cut for the first time a couple of years ago ... I haven't had a good run here," he said. 

"But the greens are also bit slower than they normally are; I had a couple of downhill putts that I managed to two-putt where in previous years you'd be lucky to do that."

Pilkadaris made the cut at last week's Volvo China Open after squeaking into the OneAsia and European Tour co-sanctioned tournament as an alternate and following a last minute dash from Italy, but after a promising opening round he went off the boil and finished three over.

"I putted poorly at the weekend -- actually the last three rounds were disappointing -- and so after the round I just went to the putting green," said Pilkadaris.

While practising, he bumped into former European Tour player Ian Garbutt, who is now a manager, and asked him to have a look at his stroke.

"He said 'hey, your stroke looks a little bit slow, just quicken your back swing up', so I worked on that for few days after getting here, and now I've  putted nicely."

Cho also credited his putter for his excellent round.

"My putting was really good today but actually the score looks better than the golf … I was scrambling a bit out there," he said.

The 24-year-old has played full time on the Japan Tour since 2010 -- winning the Kansai Open Golf Championship the following year -- and he finished joint fourth at March's Thailand Open which was co-sanctioned by both OneAsia and the Japan Golf Tour Organisation.

Defending champion Kim Bi-o blamed a lapse in concentration on the last for a double-bogey that left him level par for the round.

"I felt a bit of pressure out there and was coping well, but I let it slip right at the end," he said. 

"I will try not to let that happen again.

  FIRST ROUND SCOREBOARD

   Par 72. Yardage 6,943

    Players from South Korea unless stated otherwise 

64 CHO Min-gyu, Terry PILKADARIS (AUS).

67 LEE Kyoung-hoon, KIM Do-hoon, Matthew GRIFFIN (AUS), KIM Hyung-sung, PARK Jun-won).

68 SONG Young-han, PARK Ju-hyuk, PARK Eun-shin, KIM Seng Yong, KIM Gi-whan , PARK Jae-kyung, KANG Kyung-nam, Peter WILSON (AUS), PARK Il-hwan, KIM Woo-cha

69 Jake HIGGINBOTTOM (AUS), LEE Tae-hee, David McKENZIE (AUS), Gareth PADDISON (NZL), Anthony BROWN (AUS), JANG Ik-jae, Ming-hao WANG (CHN), KIM Tae-woo (am).

70 KIM Hyung-tae, KIM Hui-soo, HUR Suk-ho, SHIN Yong-jin, KIM Nam-hun (am), KIM Dae-sub, KANG Wook-soon, Scott LAYCOCK (AUS), MAENG Dong-seop, CHOI Ho-sung, MO Joong-kyung, Mark BROWN (NZL), BANG Doo-hwan, Rohan BLIZARD (AUS), MUN Do-yeob, George GANDRANATA (INA), HUANG Ming-jie (CHN).

71 JANG Dong-kyu, MOON Kyong-jun, Rory HIE (INA), David OH (USA), Stephen LEANEY (AUS), PARK Do-kyu, BYUN Jin-jae , KIM Kyung-tae, LEE Soo-min (am), HONG Soon-sang, Garrett SAPP (USA), Jason NORRIS (AUS), KIM Woo-hyun, Joshua YOUNGER (AUS), PARK Jae-bum (KOR), Steve JEFFRESS (AUS), BAE Sung-chul (KOR), LEE Sang-yeop (am), Jin JEONG.

72 John Young KIM (USA), Craig HANCOCK (AUS), Jason SCRIVENER (AUS), HAM Jeong-woo (am, KOR), Brad SHILTON (NZL), SONG Young-hoon (KOR), PARK Sang-hyun (KOR), RYU Hyun-woo, Ryan HALLER (AUS), KIM Jae-ho, KIM Bi-o, PARK Hyun-bin, KIM Dae-hyun, JUNG Ji-ho, KIM Byung-jun, KIM Gyu-bin (am), KIM Do-hoon, Jamie ARNOLD (AUS), YOON Jung-ho, OUYANG Zheng (CHN), LEE Sung-ho, HONG Chang-kyu (USA), LEE Dong-ha, YUAN Hao (CHN), KIM Sang-ki, KIM Sung-yoon, Pawin INGKHAPRADIT (THA).

73 KIM Kook-hyan, LEE Seong-ho, Varut CHOMCHALAM (THA), LEE Jung-hwan, LEE Sang-hee, Aaron TOWNSEND (AUS), LEE Chang-woo (am), BAEK Joo-yeob, Michael LONG (NZL), Akinori TANI (JPN), LEE Tae-kyu, Stephen DARTNALL (AUS), SUK Jong-yul, Lucas LEE (BRA), KIM Wi-joong, PARK Sung-kug, KONG Wei-hai (CHN), ZHANG Xin-jun (CHN), SON Hyun-ho.

74 BAE Hee-chan, Ren HAN (CHN), CHOI Hyuk-jae, LEE In-woo, HAN Min-kyu, HU Mu (CHN), HWANG In-choon, KIM Bong-sub, Jason KANG (USA), Andrew TSCHUDIN (AUS), WU Kang-chun (CHN), PARK Deuk-hee.

75 HAN Chang-won, KIM Jong-duck, JEONG Yun-han (am), Brody NINYETTE (AUS), Nick CULLEN (AUS), CHUNG Joon, CHOI Joon-woo, LEE Dong-min, Ryan FOX (NZL), Matthew GUYATT (AUS), JOO Heung-chol.

76 JIN Young-gab, Kwanchai TANNIN (THA), WU Wei-huang (CHN), LIM Hyun-seok, HWANG Jung-gon, PARK Sang-eon, Richard T LEE (CAN), LIU Yu-xiang (CHN), KIM Soo-whan.

77 KIM Bong-ju (am, KOR), LI Hao-tong (CHN).

78 Andrew KELLY (AUS), KIM Seung-hyuk, LEE Ki-sang, HUR In-hoi.

79 QUAN Da (CHN), ZHOU Guo-wu (CHN), Michael WRIGHT (AUS).

80 Eric MINA (USA).

81 Matthew STIEGER (AUS).

82 SU Dong (CHN).

83 HAM Jae-hyung (am).

86 YANG Ji-woung (am).