ASIA-PACIFIC OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP REPORT

 AUSSIE ROOKIE LEADS IN JAPAN

NEWS RELEASE

 

Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan: Australian rookie Cameron Smith outshone his more illustrious rivals by taking the first round lead with a flawless five-under-par 66 at the 150 million Yen (approximately US$1.5 million)  Asia-Pacific Open Golf Championship Diamond Cup today.

The Australian, who earned his Tour card by finishing tied-18^th at Qualifying School this year, has been on form of late and it continued to show with him taking prime position atop the leaderboard and holding a two-shot lead over five players bunched in tied second place.

Japan’s Hiroyuki Fujita, Kiyoshi Murota and Keiichiro signed for matching 68s to share second place with Thailand’s Namchok Tantipokhakul and South Korea’s S K Ho at the Japanese showpiece which is sanctioned by the Asian Tour and Japan Golf Tour.

  LEADING SCORES

  Par 71. YardaGE 7,117

66 Cameron SMITH (AUS).

68 S K HO (SKOR), Hiroyuki FUJITA (JPN), Kiyoshi MUROTA (JPN), Keiichiro FUKABORI (JPN), Namchok TANTIPOKHAKUL (THA).

69 Scott HEND (AUS), David LIPSKY (USA), Adam BLAND (AUS), Arjun ATWAL (IND), Shinji TOMIMURA (JPN), Juvic PAGUNSAN (PHI), Prayad MARKSAENG (THA), Marcus BOTH (AUS), Akio SADAKATA (JPN).

70 I.J. JANG (SKOR), Anirban LAHIRI (IND), Hiroshi IWATA (JPN), Katsumasa MIYAMOTO (JPN), Satoshi TOMIYAMA (JPN), Brendan JONES (AUS), BAEK Seuk-hyun (SKOR), Berry HENSON (USA), Scott STRANGE (AUS), Tetsuji HIRATSUKA (JPN), Mardan MAMAT (SIN), Panuphol PITTAYARAT (THA), LIANG Wen-chong (CHN), Javi COLOMO (ESP).