The Philippines’ Angelo Que carded a flawless seven-under-par 65 that surprised even himself as he took the opening-round lead at the Yeangder Tournament Players Championship yesterday.
The three-time Asian Tour winner marked his card with seven birdies to take a single-shot lead over India’s Gaganjeet Bhullar and the US’ Jason Knutzon, who had the honor of recording the event’s first hole-in-one.
Bhullar and Knutzon posted matching 66s to share second place, while home favorite Lin Wen-tang of Taiwan fired a 67 to secure fourth place.
Photo AFP / Paul Lakatos / Asian Tour
India’s Anirban Lahiri is a further shot back with Taiwan’s Yeh Wei-tze, after they signed for 68s at the Linkou International Golf and Country Club in Taipei.
Que, who is seeking to end a two-year drought, was all smiles after learning that he had grabbed the lead.
“Normally when I start well, I feel that I may find ways to mess it up coming in,” the 33-year-old told the Asian Tour.
“Somehow I trusted myself today and committed every shot, as well as commit to what my plan was, which was to keep the ball in play, and so far I’ve managed to pull that off,” Que said.
Starting on the back-nine 10th, Que got off the blocks quickly with two birdies in his opening three holes.
He birdied the 16th and 18th holes to reach the turn in 32.
Que continued to seize control with further birdies on the third and fourth holes, before his seventh birdie on the seventh hole gave him the outright lead.
“At one point, I didn’t know how many under I was at and didn’t really care about my scores. I just kept going and concentrated on playing,” Que said.
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