Dou Ze-Cheng off to a confident start at the Volvo China Open
Amateur Dou Ze-Cheng made the headlines after carding a two-under par 70 to share the 12th spot, midway through the opening round of the Volvo China Open, on Thursday, May 2, 2013.
The tournament is being staged at the Binhai Lake Golf Club, featuring some of the prominent names from different parts of the world.
The 16-year-old Chinese lad stunned the spectators, as well as his competitors by displaying a great set of skills on day one. He got off to a slow start, as he parred each of the first two holes, followed by a bogey putt on the third hole.
He then parred each of the next three holes, prior to picking up some pace, as he birdies three of the next eight holes that he played.
The 16th hole witnessed him making another mistake, and he had to post another bogey to his scorecard, followed by two par putts to finish the day with four-strokes behind the clubhouse leader Robert-Jan Derksen.
Talking to the European Tour’s official website, Ze-Cheng said that he was a bit nervous early in the round. That is the reason why he failed to make a quick start. However, as the round progressed, he started getting some confidence, which in turn, allowed
him to play some brilliant shots on the course.
“I was bit nervous at the start, had a bogey on the third but then came back really well with four birdies,” he said. “This is obviously by far the biggest event I have ever entered, so I am very excited to be part of it”.
According to him, the course was playing a bit longer for him. That is the reason why he was struggling to create birdie chances. Yet, he was happy to post a decent score on the leaderboard.
“This is a very long, tough course for me. On a couple of the longer par fours, I need to hit my wood from the fairway to have any chance of reaching the greens,” he said. “I hit my irons really well today, so I didn’t leave myself any long putts, which
is why I shot a good score today”.
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