Thailand’s Thitiphun Chuayprakong birdied the last two holes to grab a one-shot lead after the opening round of the Asian Tour’s Yeangder Tournament Players Championship in Taipei yesterday.
The 21-year-old carded a six-under-par 66 at the Linkou International Golf and Country Club to edge ahead of playing partner Kim Gi-hwan of South Korea (67) in second spot.
Asian Tour rookie Sam Brazel of Australia and India’s Chiragh Kumar hit four-under-par 68s to sit in a tie for third place in the US$500,000 event.
Photo: AFP / ASIAN TOUR / KHALID REDZA
Thitiphun, who started on the back nine, made a brisk start with an eagle on the 10th, before offsetting seven birdies with three bogeys in an eventful round.
“I eagled the 10th hole and from there, I felt confident,” Thitiphun told reporters. “I was lucky with the putter, but I’m still not feeling very confident with my driver because I made a swing change two weeks before the start of this event.”
Thitiphun, who is chasing a maiden Asian Tour victory, hoped the time spent working on his fitness during the mid-season break from June to this month will help open his account.
“I worked hard during the break. I spent five to six hours practicing golf and another hour and a half at the gym,” he added. “I feel stronger now and I hope that this will help me win my first Asian Tour title.”
Reigning Order of Merit winner Thaworn Wiratchant of Thailand, who has 15 Asian Tour titles, was tied for the fifth spot following a three-under-par 69.
Hsu Mong-nan also tied for fifth, followed by fellow Taiwanese Sung Mao-cheng, who tied for the 10th spot with a two-under-par 70.
Additional reporting by Staff Writer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier