Huang leads in Shenzhen
Print Edition
Two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson made a late charge up the leaderboard to get within four shots of surprise leader, China’s Huang Wenyi, after yesterday’s opening round of the European Tour’s Shenzhen International.
Playing for the first time since presenting Jordan Spieth with his green jacket at Augusta National, Watson reeled off three birdies in a row on his back nine to sign for a two-under-par 70 at the Genzon Golf Club.
That left the American tied for 17th, four strokes behind 34-year-old Huang, who is ranked 1,189th in the world, but quickly making up ground. A former laborer who never picked up a golf club until he was 22, Huang won last month’s Chinese mainland Qualifying Tournament by a whopping seven strokes and has continued his good form.
His round of 66 yesterday featured eight birdies and left him with a one stroke lead over American Peter Uihlein, Chile’s Felipe Aguilar, Thailand’s Kiradech Aphibarnrat and South Korea’s An Byeong-hun.
“Last year I played very bad,” said Huang. “This year I have changed my swing and yesterday I changed the driver and I like the new driver.
“I like the course. The green speed is very good.”
Watson, who won last year’s WGC-HSBC Championship in Shanghai in a playoff, initially struggled with his putter in his return to China but got things going late.
“It was a slow start, getting used to the greens,” he said.
“The speed, coming from the Masters to here, is a little different. I three putted one hole, some of my chips didn’t turn out the way I wanted to, but I made three in a row there to get to two-under so that’s nice.”
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
