Incheon [KOREA]: Experience proved invaluable as Chan Tuck Soon kept his hopes of a top-ten finish at the 2016 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship alive with an opening even-par 72.
Making his sixth appearance at the region’s elite amateur meet, the 22-year-old Malaysian is tied for 15th alongside six others, including defending champion Cheng Jin of China.
Daeng Abdul Rahman Abdul Aziz shrugged off the effects of a cold to return with a two-over 74 – an effort matched by debutant Danial Durisic, who is making his international bow for Malaysia.
Galven Kendall Green and Muhd Afif Muhd Razif posted matching 78s to lie T61 with the country’s other representative Amir Nazrin Jailani a further shot adrift on 79.
Leading first round scores (Par-72) >
65 – Cameron Davis (AUS)
67 – Yuwa Kosaihara (JPN), Brett Coletta (AUS)
68 – KK Limbhasut (THA), Junya Kameshiro (JPN)
69 – Nicholas Coxon (NZL)
70 – Takumi Kanaya (JPN), Rayhan Thomas (IND), Curtis Luck (USA)
71 – Joshua Ho (SIN), Nick Voke (NZL), Yeh Yu-Chen (TPE), Luke Toomey (NZL), Yu Chun-An (TPE)
——- Malaysians as they fared ——-
72 – CHAN TUCK SOON
74 – DAENG ABDUL AZIZ ABDUL RAHMAN, DANIAL DURISIC
78 – MUHD AFIF MUHD RAZIF, GALVEN KENDALL GREEN
79 – AMIR NAZRIN JAILANI
Chan flirted briefly with a leaderboard finish on Thursday, carding a hat-trick of birdies after the turn to move to three-under-par after 14 holes.
But the blustery Jack Nicklaus Golf Club proved a slippery customer as Chan dropped three consecutive bogeys on the home stretch to trail leader Cameron Davis of Australia by seven strokes.
“It’s a bit hard to swallow – made some mistakes which saw me drop three shots in as many holes towards the end as I struggled with my shots into the headwind. But overall, I’m pretty pleased with my effort – those three birdies really got me some momentum and maybe, I pushed a little too hard after that.
“On any given day, an even-par is a good score to play and I’ll take it. It keeps me on track for my target (top-ten finish) and I need to tap on my experience playing in such windy conditions from previous editions, similar to Hong Kong (2015) and Melbourne (2014),” added Chan, whose best finish was joint 27th last year.
In other development, Singapore’s Sentosa Golf Club was announced as the host of the tenth anniversary edition of the storied tournament in 2018. The city state had previously hosted the championship in 2011 at the Singapore Island Country Club.
