Orient Masters
Orient
Golf and Country Club
Xiamen, China
2nd - 5th April 1998
First
Round Report
First
Round Scores
Park
and Quinn lead Orient Masters
Xiamen,
China, 2nd April 1998 - Korea's Park No-seok and Brian Quinn of the United
States overcame difficult conditions to take the first round lead in the US$200,000
Orient Masters at Orient Golf and Country Club.
The
two players fired two-under-par 70s to lead the Omega Tour event by a stroke from
Taiwan's Lin Keng-chi, Thailand's Chawalit Plaphol, American Shaun Micheel, Filipino
Danny Zarate and Koreans Anthony Kang and Kim Tae-hoon.
Park,
playing in a high-profile group of Thailand's Boonchu Ruangkit and American Mike
Cunning, played a brilliantly controlled round of golf in strong winds and facing
quick, undulating greens.
While
players struggled over the 7,048-yard Ronald Fream-designed layout, Park amazingly
dropped only one shot - the result of a three-putt from 40 feet on the second.
The
Korean had started his round on the back nine and opened with two birdies and
with a birdie on 14 went out in three-under-par 33.
"I
am very satisfied with my round particularly as this is my first tournament of
the year," said Park, winner of the Philip Morris Asia Cup last year on the
Omega Tour.
"Conditions
were very hard. It was a very demanding round of golf. The course is not difficult,
it's a good layout, but the greens and wind made good scoring impossible,"
added Park.
Quinn,
whose brother Fran also plays on the Omega Tour, played a rollercoaster round
firing seven birdies and five bogies. "I made a lot of birdies by hitting
close to the pin but then dropped shots by mis-clubbing. It was very windy out
there," said Quinn.
The
American also started his round on the back nine and helped by five birdies made
the turn in three under before coming home in one over.
Home
favourite Zhang Lian-wei was disappointed to card a two-over-par 74 after struggling
on the greens but with only eight players managing to break par he is well placed
to mount a challenge for the title.
