Lian-Wei Zhang starts well at the UBS Hong Kong Open
Chinese Lian-Wei Zhang opened his campaign well by carding a four-under-par 66 to trail the opening-round leader Javi Colomo of Spain by two shots, at the UBS Hong Kong Open, on Thursday, November 15, 2012.
The tournament is being played at the prestigious Hong Kong Golf Club, featuring some of the prominent names on the Asian Tour and the European Tour.
Zhang is known for becoming the first Chinese player to taste success on the European Tour, after he won the 2003 Caltex Masters.
The very next year witnessed him make his debut in the Masters Tournament. It was the first time in the history of the game that the Chinese flag was being represented in a major golf championship.
So far in his career, the 47-year-old has won a total of 18 professional tournaments in different parts of the world.
However, he has not been able to grab a single victory for around two years now. This week, he plans to end his winless streak, while adding the sixth Asian Tour title to his resume.
The Shenzhen, Guangdong resident got off to a stunning start, as he carded four birdies in a row, starting from the 11th hole.
He then added another shot to his scorecard on the 17th hole to reach the turn in five-under. Entering his final hole of the day, he was six-under for the round, thanks to another birdie on the third hole.
However, his tee shot on the 10th hole went way out of the fairway and found a thick patch of rough. As a result, he had to suffer a double bogey, which took him into the share of the fourth place on the leaderboard.
“It was a great start. I started with four birdies. I was five-under after eight holes. But on the last hole today, my tee shot went into the left rough and it was very tough to get out from that lie and I ended up with a double bogey,” he said.
He added, “Back at the China Open when I beat Ernie Els, it was almost ten years ago, and I beat Nick Price in the Macau Open, more than ten years ago”.
“So I've won the China Open and the Macau Open and I've always wanted to add the Hong Kong Open to be one of my wins”.
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