Kuala Lumpur: Danny Chia continued his resurgent form of late as he put on a strong start at the US$500,000 Yeangder Tournament Players Championship (TPC) on Thursday.
The 40-year-old, whose only Asian Tour win came at the ACER Taiwan Open in 2002, carded a four-under 68 to lie two strokes adrift from first round leader Elmer Slavador of the Philippines.
Chia traded five birdies with a bogey to take a share of fifth alongside Filipinos Angelo Que and Antonio Lascuna as well as local representative Hsu Hao-sheng at the Linkou International Golf & Country Club.
“I hit a lot of good drives today. I think that helps a lot especially on this golf course. I took advantage of the par-fives. It was a good ball-striking round today. I had a tough time on the putting greens but I had some lucky putts today,” said Chia.
“You need a lot of luck to play well here, especially on the putting greens. What you see may not be what you get here. The greens are really tricky here. You definitely need to hit a lot of good drives to score well on this golf course. If I continue to hit the ball like how I did today, I will aim to finish in top-five this week. We will see how it goes,” he added.
Chia, who is on the comeback trail after a surgery on career-threatening neck and shoulder injury late last year, was pleased with his form as he tries to get some top-level competition ahead of a much-anticipated payday at the CIMB Classic.
“It was a mixture of everything today but overall, I thought my ball-striking was pretty good. It has been kind of up and down for me this season. It’s all based on my body conditions due to my shoulder injury. I will try and play as much as I can,” noted Chia.
Leading first round scores:
66 – Elmer Salvador (PHI)
67 – Lien Lu-sen (TPE), Prom Meesawat (THA), Marcus Both (AUS).
68 – Angelo Que (PHI), Antonio Lascuna (PHI), Hsu Hao-sheng (TPE), Danny Chia (MAS)
69 – Gunn Charoenkul (THA), Guy Woodman (ENG).
70 – Rahil Gangjee (IND), Thaworn Wiratchant (THA), Lam Chih Bing (SIN), Cameron Smith (AUS), Christ Gaunt (AUS), Jake Higginbottom (AUS), Lin Wen-tang (TPE), Jack Munro (AUS), Tsai Kai-jen (TPE), Fan Chiang Hao-chuan (TPE).
71 – Paul Peterson (USA), Chan Shih-chang (TPE), Unho Park (AUS), Chawalit Plaphol (THA), Bryce Easton (RSA), Sam Brazel (AUS), Arnond Vongvanij (THA), Sutijet Kooratanapisan (THA), James Bowen (USA), Daniel Chopra (SWE), Rashid Khan (IND), Atthaphon Sriboonkaew (THA), Kalem Richardson (AUS), Ryan Yip (CAN)