Chia, Que and Ali lead Open berth battle

Malaysia’s Danny Chia, Angelo Que of the Philippines and England’s Yasin Ali took a giant step towards the British Open after firing matching three-under-par 69s in the International Final Qualifying – Asia on Tuesday.

Chia, an Asian Tour regular, sank six birdies against three bogeys at the Sentosa Golf Club’s Serapong course while Que enjoyed five birdies on the card for his strong start.

Big-hitting Ali was poised for the sole lead as he stood on the 18th tee at five-under but found a watery grave with an errant drive which led to a double bogey.

Filipino Antonio Lascuna, Ben Leong of Malaysia, who enjoyed a hole-in-one, and Japanese duo Tomohiro Kondo and Keiichiro Fukabori shot identical 70s to stay in the hunt for the four tickets at stake to The Open at Royal Birkdale, England in July at the two-day qualifier.

Chia is bidding for a second appearance at The Open and gave himself every chance with a solid ball striking display. “I’m quite pleased with the way I’m hitting the ball. There were some tough pins out there but on the overall, I’m happy. I like the layout here and every time I come back, I always feel I can play well.”

The Malaysian, who featured at St Andrews in 2005, knows he needs to shoot a hatful of birdies to succeed in the 36-hole qualifier but is wary of the treacherous Serapong course which yielded only 15 under-par rounds today.

“I missed a couple of short ones, for pars and birdies. Hopefully, I can play the same game tomorrow and hole a few more putts. I bogeyed the 18th from three feet which was disappointing. I took a one-ball break and it broke by about four balls … it was a tough pin.”

Que, a winner on the Asian Tour, got his adrenaline flowing as he moved into position for a maiden Major debut. A 30-foot birdie conversion on the 17th hole capped his superb round.

“For the first time, I’m in a position to get in. I’ve been hitting the ball good since the Indonesian Open this year and all I have needed to do was to make putts which I did today,” said the jovial Filipino.

Que knows he needs to keep his foot on the pedal if he hopes to feature at Royal Birkdale. “The foot can still come out (from the door). I’m excited but I won’t change anything and will stick to my routine,” said Que.

Ali was disappointed to lose his grip on the lead at the challenging par five 18th hole, which has water stretching all the way on the left of the hole. He pulled his tee shot into the lake for an eventual seven but chose to take the positives from his round, which included four successive birdies from the third hole. He also fired an eagle on the 12th.

“I played pretty solid except for a few loose shots. The shots I dropped today were water balls. If I can keep out of the water, I should be okay. On the last hole, the wind was coming off the left and I tried to bite off a bit more than I could chew on the tee shot and pulled it,” said Ali.

Like Que, the Englishman, who is a regular on the Asian Tour, is dreaming of a Major debut but knows there is plenty of work left to do. “It’ll be awesome if I can qualify for the oldest major that we have. But with four spots available, you never know what the guys can shoot. You just try to make as many birdies as you can and total it up at the end of the day,” said Ali.

Fukabori, a Japan Tour regular, holed a superb nine iron approach from 154 yards on the sixth hole for an eagle two to stay in the chase. The Japanese star, who has played three times previously at The Open, said: “I was lucky that it went in the hole. It pitched seven yards from the pin and rolled in.”

Malaysia’s Leong sank an ace at the second hole with a seven iron en route to a 70 to give himself a fighting chance for an Open ticket. But like many others, he also faltered down the stretch with two closing bogeys. “It was a bit disappointing but I’m still in the game,” said Leong, winner of the Asian Tour Qualifying School for the past two seasons.

“I took it too easy and bogeys on the last two holes aren’t exactly the way to finish.”

Complete first round scores:

69: Danny Chia (Mas), Angelo Que (Phi), Yasin Ali (Eng)
70: Antonio Lascuna (Phi), Tomohiro Kondo (Jpn), Keiichiro Fukabori (Jpn), Ben Leong (Mas)
71: Chinnarat Phadungsil (Tha), Gavin Flint (Aus), Jason King (Aus), Yoshinobu Tsukada (Jpn), Brad Kennedy (Aus), Prom Meesawat (Tha), Will Yanagisawa (USA)
72: Airil Rizman (Mas), Mars Pucay (Phi), Han Lee (USA), Scott Barr (Aus), Chung Joon (Kor), Young Nam (USA), Lam Chih Bing (Sin), Juvic Pagunsan (Phi), Brett Bingham (Can)
73: Lee Sung (Kor), David Bransdon (Aus), Takuya Taniguchi (Jpn), Tatsuhiko Ichihara (Jpn), Anthony Kang (USA), Adam Blyth (Aus)
74: Mardan Mamat (Sin), Jun Kikuchi (Jpn), Bryan Saltus (USA), Amandeep Johl (Ind), Park Jun-won (Kor), Sushi Ishigaki (Jpn)
75: Shiv Kapur (Ind), Olle Nordberg (Swe), Adam Groom (Aus), Ahmad Dan Bateman (Can), Richard Moir (Aus), Zaw Moe (Myn), David Gleeson (Aus), Digvijay Singh (Ind), Tony Carolan (Aus)
76: Craig Smith (Wal), Ross Bain (Sco), Shinichi Yokota (Jpn), Akinori Tani (Jpn), Tadahiro Takayama (Jpn)
77: Noh Seung-yul (Kor), Marcus Both (Aus), Rahil Gangjee (Ind), Jyoti Randhawa (Ind)
78: Simon Dunn (Sco), Naoya Takemoto (Jpn), Rhys Davies (Wal), Soushi Tajima (Jpn)
79: Masaya Tomida (Jpn)
80: S. Sivachandran (Mas)
82: Gurbaaz Mann (Ind)

March 25, 2008

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