2005 China Tour Hainan Leg - Round 1: Tan leads but first round unfinished

After worrying all week about Typhoon Kai-tak wreaking havoc on the China Tour Hainan Leg, instead a road accident involving a bus carrying the club caddies used by many of the golfers to the Kangle Garden Spa and Golf Club forced a two hour delay to the start of the tournament, leaving almost half the field on the course when darkness descended.

As a result Tony Tan Yongzong found himself at the top of the leader board for the first time in his life after a birdie in the driving rain on the 18th. The 28 year old from Guanxi province, who is rated as a professional coach rather than a fully-fledged pro by the China Golf Association, found himself in a three way tie for the club house lead after shooting a two under par 70.

"I've never been there; never as a professional and never as an amateur. I was sixth in an amateur event once," he said with a broad grin.

His moment in the sun, on a day when the clouds barely parted and a strong post-typhoon wind sporadically drove rain across the course, was made even sweeter by being joined by his best friend - Kunming Leg winner Richard Qiu Zhifeng - for whom Tan is going to caddie for in next week's HSBC Champions Tournament in Shanghai.

"I practice with Qiu Zhifeng in Dongguan (Guangdong). We are good friends, and he has taught me a lot about golf,"Tan explained.

Qiu had a bogey free round, quite an achievement given the conditions, but took his time to get his putting going having been kept off the course by the weather in the build up to the tournament.

"I didn't practice putting before the tournament, so my putting was not very good," Qiu explained. "I'm quite happy about the back nine though. After winning the Kunming Leg I've got clearer goals as a professional golfer. It brought back my confidence to play in tournaments, not only on the China Tour, but also international tournaments. It feels like I have entered a new era of my career. Before I missed the cut in many of the important tournaments, so every time when I played I was always under too much pressure worrying about missing the cut, but after winning the Kunming leg, I'm much more confident and am focused more on golf itself."

Tan's other co-leader is his playing partner and current China Tour Order of Merit leader Li Chao, a remarkable outcome given that their group inexplicably failed to realize that preferred lies were applicable until Li made the first of successive bogies on the 16th.

Li, the Beijing Leg winner and Zhuhai Leg runner-up, topped an approach shot from an awkward sandy lie and then let his anger boil over on the 17th hole's island green, spearing his sand wedge into the bank after barely clearing the lip of the bunker. As has become his custom the bogey ball was immediately dispatched into the lake.

"I didn't know! I didn't know!" he raged, before eventually controlling his ire and admitting he'd actually had a good day.

"Overall it isn't bad. I felt quite good. My putting was good, but I had problems on 16 and 17," said the 25-year-old who has held the lead after six of the Tour's 10 rounds and only once featured outside the top four.

"I just hope I can play better in the second round," he added.

The other co-leaders expressed the same sentiment, perhaps with even more conviction, as the two friends - Tan and Qiu - had only managed nine holes of practice leading up to the start of the Hainan Leg.

"I didn't practice the front nine, like Qiu Zhifeng, because it was raining very heavily on Tuesday. If I had tested the front nine it would have been better, because it felt a bit like testing the course today on the front nine," Tan explained.

"Now that I have played the front nine today I have a clear idea of the right strategy, even for the difficult par 3 holes. I should be able to score better," insisted Qiu.

Before the trio gets back on the course, Liu Qiang, the China Tour's very first entrant, has a chance to take the first round lead. He also stands on two under par with six holes to play.

Meanwhile the early morning bus crash left many of the caddies on the coach needing hospital treatment, although none are thought to have been seriously injured. Meanwhile organisers resorted to ferrying in caddies from neighboring clubs to allow the tournament to get underway.

"The ability of the club and the organization during this emergency situation was very good," said the China Golf Association's Deputy Secretary General Song Liangliang.

China Tour - Hainan Leg

First round clubhouse leaders (Par 72)

70 - Li Chao, Qiu Zhifeng, Tan Yongzong
71 - Cui Xiaolong
72 - Yuan Hao
73 - Cheng Fei, Gu Cuilin, Liao Guiming, Wang Xiaobin
74 - Gu Shutao, Shen Hao, Xing Xiaoxuan, Zheng Shaoguang
75 - Deng Yonghong, Fu Tai, Liu Xin, Shi Ningjie, Sun Yiping, Ye Qingwei, Wu Kangchun (A)
76 - Cheng Jun, Huang Mingjie, Liu Anda, L? Wenxu, Meng Qingpeng, Shang Lei
77 - Feng Xu, Luo Ling, Ma Jianrong, Sun Wei, Ye Pengfei, Zhou Liansheng

November 3, 2005

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