Puchong [SELANGOR]: Thai duo Poom Saksansin and Ronnachai Jamnong and local talent Muhd Alwarith Damian shared the first round lead on three under-par 67s at the PGM Kinrara Championship on Thursday.
American Casey O’Toole, who leads the current Asian Development Tour (ADT) Order of Merit, stayed a shot back in fourth place with 13 other players, including compatriot Paul Harris as well as Malaysians Kemarol Baharin, Chong Chee Ming and Abel Tam.
Indonesian William Sjaichudin, Singapore’s Koh Deng Shan and Shaaban Hussin were among the eight players bunched in tied-18th position following identical 69s at the Kinrara Golf Club.
Happy with his opening effort, Alwarith said: “I played quite well but I was also quite lucky. I had a few good breaks and that helped me through.”
“My putting was maybe the best area of my game as I made a few good putts that helped me out,” added the 22-year-old Kuala Lumpur lad.
The RM200,000 tournament was earlier reduced to 54 holes by tournament officials due to bad haze on Thursday with the Air Pollution Index (API) expected to be in the unhealthy range over the next few days. All players will return for the second round on Friday morning with another shotgun start at 8.15am while the third and final round will take place on Saturday.
“The tournament has been affected by persistent haze situation in the local area and the Air Pollution Index (API) is expected to be high over the next few days. Therefore, we have taken the decision to reduce the tournament to 54 holes in the best interest of the players,” said PGM Kinrara Championship tournament director Adnan Othman.
Leading first round scores (Par-70)>
Malaysian unless stated
67 – Ronnachai Jamnong (THA), Poom Saksansin (THA), Muhd Alwarith Damian
68 – Casey O’Toole (USA), Chanat Sakulpolphaisan (THA), Sukree Othman, Masaru Takahashi (JPN), Erwan Vieilledent (FRA), Kenneth Tobuse, Mars Pucay (PHI), Paul Harris (USA), Janne Kaske (FIN), Kemarol Baharin, CM Chong, Abel Tam, Supravee Phatam (THA), Josh Salah (USA)
69 – Shaaban Hussin, Andrew Wirawan (INA), William Sjaichudin (INA), Micah Lauren Shin (USA), Koh Dengshan (SIN), Hans Jamil, Rudy Thuillier (FRA), Shariffudin Ariffin
