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Yuan and Fan head Volvo China qualifying

Local player Yuan Hao and Fan Zhi Peng from Fujian shot even par 72’s in the final round of the Volvo China Open Southern Qualifying at Harbour Plaza Golf Club in Dongguan to share top place at two under par for the two rounds. They finished three shots ahead of first round leader, Qiu Zhi Feng. All three qualify for the US$2.2 million Volvo China Open in Beijing in April.

Yuan Hao, Fan Zhi Peng and Qiu Zhi Feng

With a stiff breeze and tough pin positions all three made heavy going of the outward nine with Yuan and Qiu three over and Fan one over at the turn. The inward nine was a different story as putts started to drop for Yuan and Fan resulting in a haul of seven birdies between the two to come home comfortable joint winners.

“It was quite tense out there because the conditions were tricky,” said Yuan who is renowned as one of China’s long hitters. “I think both Fan and I we’re very relieved to see the putts starting to drop on the inward nine. That helped calm us a lot.”

Qiu continued to let shots slip and seemed in danger of being overhauled a by a surging Liao Gui-ming who started the home stretch with two birdies in three holes. However the 28 year old Guangzhou native took a grip of his game again with a fine birdie at the 17th and played safe for a par at the final hole to hold on to third place.

“I had a bit of a fright out there as I could see things slipping away,” said Qiu. “When I scored hat birdie at the 17th I felt a lot of pressure come off me.”

Leading amateur was Hou Jian with a score of 155.

Seven of the 13 qualifying spots for the Volvo China Open have now been decided. The next three will be decided at Shanghai Silport Golf Club on March 25th and 26th.


Top 10 Result

Pos Name R1 R2 +/-
1 YUAN Hao 70 72 -2
1 FAN Zhi Peng 70 72 -2
3 QIU Zhi Feng 68 77 1
4 LIAO Gui Ming 73 74 3
5 GU Cui Lin 72 76 4
6 LIU Jun Feng 77 76 9
6 HOU Jian [A] 76 77 9
6 CHEN Yu 76 77 9
9 ZHANG Xing Yong 77 77 10
9 ZHONG Yong Guang 77 77 10

March 12, 2008