Home Hero Liang Grabs Share Of Nanshan Lead

Nanshan, China, Oct. 11 - Home hero Liang Wenchong played flawless golf for a three-under-par 68 and a share of the lead with countryman Yuan Hao and Australian Steven Jones after the opening round of OneAsia's U.S. $1 million Nanshan China Masters on Thursday.

The trio outshone Major winners Louis Oosthuizen and Y.E. Yang, who were both level par on a day the Nanshan International Golf Club's Danling course had the better of the field.

Six players will have to finish their first round on Friday, but none were realistically within a shout of the leaders.

"I'm familiar with Nanshan as I have played here many times," Liang said. "The course is in very good condition, but really tests my game."

Yuan, a lowly 100th on the Order of Merit, was not to be outdone by his better-known countryman.

"It's my first time to lead a OneAsia event, but I'm not nervous because is in China everything is familiar," he said.

Another unlikely name on the leaderboard was Jones, who hasn't made a cut on OneAsia this year but credits working with a sports psychologist for helping him sharpen his mental toughness.

"I have been playing better at home so its nice to do it here as well," he said. "I was getting a lot of negative thoughts in my head so I have been working on that and I think it is starting to pay off."

Only 15 players were under par around the 6,539 metre (7,151 yard) course and Oosthuizen -- winner of the 2010 Open Championship -- said he would probably try to play more conservatively on Friday.

"I'll just try to hit 18 greens and give myself 18 putts for birdie and hopefully one or two will go in," he said.

"There are a lot of birdies out there, but that bogey is just lurking around the corner all the time."

Yang, winner of the 2009 PGA Championship and a two-time OneAsia champion with victories at the Volvo China Open and Kolon Korea Open in 2010, double-bogeyed the last hole to finish level par.

"It wasn't easy out there," he said. "Its definitely not as easy as it looks!"

"The wind was moving around so it made it hard," he said. "It is not easy to be aggressive on this course. I think eight or 10 under can win this."

SCORES

After round 1 of the 2012 Nanshan China Masters being played at the par-71, 6,539-metres (7,151 yards) Danling course at the Nanshan International GC course (a- denotes amateur):

68 - Steven JONES (AUS), LIANG Wenchong (CHN), YUAN Hao (CHN).

69 - SONG Young-han (KOR), Aaron TOWNSEND (AUS), Jamie ARNOLD (AUS), WANG Jeung-hun (KOR).

70 - Chris CAMPBELL (AUS), PARK Sung-hyuk (KOR), Daniel FOX (AUS), David MCKENDRICK (AUS), Ryan HALLER (AUS), OUYANG Zheng (CHN), Scott LAYCOCK (AUS), Gareth PADDISON (NZL).

71 - Leigh DEAGAN (AUS), Clint RICE (AUS), Terry PILKADARIS (AUS), Simon YATES (SCO), KIM Hyung-tae (KOR), Y. E. YANG (KOR), LIU Yu-xiang (CHN), GAO Yi-jie (CHN), Andre STOLZ (AUS), Louis OOSTHUIZEN (RSA).

72 - ZHOU Guo-wu (CHN), Adam BLAND (AUS), Anthony BROWN (AUS), Michael CHOI (AUS), Ashley HALL (AUS), Michael HENDRY (NZL), HU Mu (CHN), Scott STRANGE (AUS), YU Gen-dong (CHN), LEE Joung-wook (KOR), Andrew MARTIN (AUS), Peter COOKE (AUS), LI Xue-cheng (CHN).

73 - Michael LONG (NZL), Mitchell BROWN (AUS), HE Shaocai (CHN), Douglas HOLLOWAY (NZL), James MCLEAN (AUS), FAN Zhi-peng (CHN), Michael WRIGHT (AUS), SU Dong (CHN), Garrett SAPP (USA), Mark BROWN (NZL).

74 - WU Wei-huang (CHN), LI Yuan (am, CHN), Rory HIE (INA), Brent McCULLOUGH (AUS), FU Tai (CHN), DOU Ze-cheng (am, CHN), ZHANG Chang-lei (CHN), WU Hong-fu (CHN), Jason KANG (USA), LI Chao (CHN), James CARR (AUS), David McKENZIE (AUS), Rohan BLIZARD (AUS).