Volvo China Open
Sunisland International Club
Shanghia, China
16th - 19th April 1998

First Round Report

First Round Scores

Sunisland feels the heat as birdies soar

Shanghai, China, 16th April 1998 - Birdies soared high and low at Sunisland on a day of remarkably low scoring in the US$400,000 Volvo China Open in Shanghai. Australians John Senden and Leith Wastle, Korea's Anthony Kang, South Africa's Nico Van Rensburg, Taiwan's Lin Keng-chi and Eric Meeks of the United States fired six-under-par 66s to share the first-round lead at Sunisland International Golf Club, an hour and 15 minutes drive outside of Shanghai.

They lead the Omega Tour event but are followed closely by a field that showed no mercy to the 6,764-yard Nelson, Wright and Haworth designed layout.

Nine players carded 67, 12 players returned 68 while a total of 76 players broke par.

Best-known of the leaders is Lin, winner of the 1995 Omega Order of Merit. The 31-year-old lost his Japan PGA Tour card last year and is desperate to rediscover the kind of form which saw him win three times in 1996.

"I lost my confidence playing in Japan last year and am trying to find my game again," said Lin. "This course is a good layout. You can really attack it and take chances. There are only a few places where you have to be careful. It definitely favours the long hitters. I think one of the big hitters will win this week," added Lin, who had seven birdies and a bogey.

Least-known of the frontrunners is 25-year-old Kang who played a bogey-free round. "That is the best tournament round I have ever played – I am delighted," said Kang who turned professional in 1996.

"The scores are low mainly because there is plenty of space to hit the ball into. The fairways are wide and the rough is short so you always have a clean shot," added the Korean, who boasts an interesting list of places where he has lived. Having stayed in Korea for 10 years he then moved to Hawaii for eight years and currently calls home Las Vegas and Portland, Oregon. "I am trying to live in all the best holiday places," said Kang.

Van Rensburg emphatically demonstrated the hospitable nature of the course to big-hitters by birdieing all four par fives after reaching each of them in two.

His score was made even more impressive by the fact that it was his first ever round on the course. "I arrived late and only had time to ride around the course in a buggy," said the big Springbok. "I like the course and feel confident about doing well this week. I have been working on getting width to swing with my coach, Peter Bekker, at home in South Africa and I can feel things coming together." The Volvo China Open is a joint-sanctioned event with the China PGA Tour.