Ipoh: Top national junior Low Khai Jei (pix) carded a new course record of nine-under 63 en-route to topping the stroke-play preliminaries at the North Malaysian Amateur Open on Friday.

Fresh from winning the Kuala Lumpur Amateur Open last week, the 16-year-old from neighbouring Taiping opened his campaign with a four-under 68 in the morning session at Royal Perak Golf Club before setting the new mark later in the day to advance as the top seed into the signature matchplay portion of the event.

Canadian Danny Neongowice had shot a ten-under 62 in a Asian Davidoff Tour event back in 1996 before the layout underwent a massive renovation exercise in 2008.

Malaysian Golf Association (MGA) PELAPIS player Ervin Chang was second on the back of rounds of 70 and 72 for a two-under 142, ahead of defending champion Abel Tam, who managed an even-par overall. The top eight players advanced into the weekend matchplay contest.

Leading strokeplay scores
131 – Low Khai Jei 68-63
142 – Ervin Chang 72-70
144 – Abel Tam Kwang Yuan 70-74
153 – Tan Chee Kean 80-73, Muhammad Naqiuddin Md Fuad 76-77
156 – Lucas Yee 75-81
157 – Adam Ward 76-81
158 – Mohd Alshahrizal Zainal 81-77
162 – Mior Asyraf Haziq 79-83, Luke Tingley 80-82