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April 17, 2015

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Huang leads in Shenzhen

Two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson made a late charge up the leaderboard to get within four shots of surprise leader, China鈥檚 Huang Wenyi, after yesterday鈥檚 opening round of the European Tour鈥檚 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鈥檚 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鈥檚 Felipe Aguilar, Thailand鈥檚 Kiradech Aphibarnrat and South Korea鈥檚 An Byeong-hun.

鈥淟ast year I played very bad,鈥 said Huang. 鈥淭his year I have changed my swing and yesterday I changed the driver and I like the new driver.

鈥淚 like the course. The green speed is very good.鈥

Watson, who won last year鈥檚 WGC-HSBC Championship in Shanghai in a playoff, initially struggled with his putter in his return to China but got things going late.

鈥淚t was a slow start, getting used to the greens,鈥 he said.

鈥淭he speed, coming from the Masters to here, is a little different. I three putted one hole, some of my chips didn鈥檛 turn out the way I wanted to, but I made three in a row there to get to two-under so that鈥檚 nice.鈥


 

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