Englishman Harrold surges four clear at Asian

Championship in China

ASIAN TOUR NEWS RELEASE

Xiamen, China: Asian Tour rookie William Harrold from Norwich exploded into life in today's opening round of the KG S and H CITY Asian Golf Championship by shooting a new course record of eight-under-par 64 to lead by four shots.

The 6ft 2in, 29-year-old Harrold, who played on the US college circuit while a student at the University of Missouri, came through the Asian Tour Qualifying School in January. He rode on his imperious form today to sign for a bogey-free round, highlighted by eight birdies at the Kaikou Golf Club’s West course.

Thai hotshot Namchok Tantipokhakul fired five birdies against a bogey to sit in second place at the US$350,000 tournament, which marked the first event sanctioned by the Asian Tour and the Chinese Golf Association (CGA) in China since 2008.

Seven players, including the likes of local prospects Liu Yan-wei, Ye Jian-feng and Chinese Taipei’s Hung Chien-yao, share third place following matching rounds of 69.

Players from the China Tour will be eligible to take up associate memberships with the Asian Tour, with the top-five non-exempt players from the China Tour Order of Merit at the end of the season receiving spots into the Final Stage of the 2018 Asian Tour Qualifying School.

Harrold hit a total of 16 greens and needed only 26 putts in his round of 64 today.

 

Player Interviews

 

William Harrold (Eng) – First Round 64 (-8)

I drove well, so I had good chances into the greens. I hit good iron shots most of the time. I’ve also read the greens and putted really well.

In the practice round, you may have the impression that the pin placements are difficult. Today, the pins are placed on the flatter spots of the green. There were tricky ones, but the greens were slower today. So if you keep the ball on the low side of the hole, you can hit your putts more aggressively.

I made a mistake at the last hole, but I also made a big 45-feet putt across the slope for a birdie, which was nice.

 

Namchok Tantipokhakul (Tha) – First Round 68 (-4)

I feel great about the round. I hit many fairways today and putted well.

The course is not too easy, but it’s also not too difficult. The tee off is very important. I used a mixture of driver, three wood and hybrids. Overall, the course is not very long.

The putting is indeed difficult here, but if you position it well on the greens, you’ll get a good birdie chance.

For the game tomorrow, I will just continue to play at our pace and take the opportunity to have some fun. We have a good camaraderie in the flight, so similar to today, we’ll take it easy and make the best of our chances here.

 

Scores after round 1 of the KG S&H City Asian Golf Championship being played at the par 72, 7012 Yards Kaikou Golf Club course (am - denotes amateur):

64 - William HARROLD (ENG).

68 - Namchok TANTIPOKHAKUL (THA).

69 - LIU Yan-wei (CHN), YE Jian-feng (CHN), Teemu PUTKONEN (FIN), Ryann REE (USA), HUNG Chien-yao (TPE), Callum TARREN (ENG), YUAN Hao (CHN).

70 - LI Chao (CHN), HSIEH Chi-hsien (TPE), JIN Da-xing (CHN).

71 - HE Ze-yu (CHN), LI Xin-yang (CHN), Nicolas PAEZ (USA), LEE Chieh-po (TPE), Bowen XIAO (CHN), SHE Zi-han (CHN), OUYANG Zheng (CHN).

72 - XU Qin (CHN), Stephen LEWTON (ENG), Itthipat BURANATANYARAT (THA), Michael SKELTON (ENG), Marcus BOTH (AUS), HSU Hao-sheng (TPE).

73 - Chanachok DEJPIRATANAMONGKOL (THA), Yusuke MINAMOTO (JPN), SU Dong (CHN), LIEN Lu-Sen (TPE), Jakraphan PREMSIRIGORN (THA), TSENG Hong-sheng (TPE), Prom MEESAWAT (THA), YUAN Tian (CHN), Giwhan KIM (KOR), LIN Wen-tang (TPE), HAK Shun Yat (HKG), WU Hong-fu (CHN), Mathew WEBB (ENG), CHIANG Chen-Chih (TPE), CHEN Ding-gen (CHN).

74 - ZHUANG Zhu (am, CHN), Malcolm KOKOCINSKI (SWE), HAN Ren (CHN), ZHU Wei-yu (CHN), CHAN Shih-chang (TPE), Maverick ANTCLIFF (AUS), Sunil JUNG (CAN), Bryden MACPHERSON (AUS), Peradol PANYATHANASEDH (THA), ZHOU Guo-wu (CHN).

75 - Arie Irawan (MAS), George GANDRANATA (INA), CHEN Chang-ping (CHN), Sorachut HANSAPIBAN (THA), MA Cheng-yao (CHN), Johnson POH (SIN), CHEN Xiao-zhong (CHN), Nicholas FUNG (MAS), Quincy QUEK (SIN), Sangpil YOON (SKOR).