Chinnarat Phadungsil starts well at the Barclays Singapore Open
Chinnarat Phadungsil of Thailand carded four-under par 67 and tied for the second position, before the inclement weather forced the game to be suspended on day one of the Barclays Singapore Open.
The US$6 million event, which is co-sanctioned event by the European Tour and the Asian Tour, is being played at the Serapong Golf Club in Singapore.
England’s Simon Khan and Spain’s Pablo Martin were the other two players who shared the second position Phadungsil.
Thomas Bjorn of Denmark, in the meantime, held the clubhouse lead, after posting an impressive five-under par 66.
YE Yang, the Asian Tour’s honorary member, took the share of the fifth spot on the leaderboard, along with Paul Casey and Kwanchai Tannin, with a three-under par 68.
In 2005, Phadungsil won the Double A International Open as an amateur and became the youngest winner on the Asian Tour – he won at the age of 17 years and five days.
Right after that, he turned professional and started playing on the Asian Tour on full-time basis.
In 2006, he added another title to his resume by winning the Crown Plaza Open. He then won his third Asian Tour event at the Queen's Cup in 2009.
Since then, he has not been able to taste success and is confident to end his three-year title drought with a victory this week.
Starting off on the 10th hole, the Thai star came flying out of the blocks with four birdies on the last six holes on the back nine of the course.
He then added another birdie to his scorecard on the fifth hole. However, he lost it on the very next hole by conceding a bogey.
“I feel very good. I feel very confident today on my front nine. I hit a lot of good tee shots on the front nine. I putted well too,” he said.
Talking about the course conditions, he stated that the off-the-tee game will be the key to success in Singapore.
“On this course, you’ve to hit the ball onto the fairways and that’s what I managed to do throughout my round today,” added Chinnarat.
The three-time Masters champion Phil Mickelson, in the meantime, looked frustrated with his performance, as he posted a two-over par 73.
Prior to the start of the event, Mickelson was regarded as one of the hottest favourites for a victory this week.
The left-handed player recorded top-five finishes in three of the last four tournaments he played, including second positions in the BMW Championship and the HSBC Champions.
However, he got off to a disappointing start, as he carded two birdies against two bogeys and a double bogey to share the 94th position.
“It was not the start I was hoping for. I had been playing really well heading into this tournament. I hit some poor shots but fought very hard to stay a couple over,” said Mickelson.
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