Homegrown talent Daxing Jin raised the local cheers when he signed for a flawless eight-under-par 64 to lead by one shot in the opening round of the prestigious Volvo China Open on Thursday.
The 25-year-old Jin, who is making his fifth appearance in his National Open this week, is thrilled to return with a bogey-free round highlighted by six birdies and an eagle at the Beijing Topwin Golf and Country Club.
Japanese hotshot Hideto Tanihara stole the limelight by driving home a new Volvo XC90 T5 Momentum, thanks to an ace on the par-three 16th hole in the CN¥20,000,000 (approx. US$3,178,000) event, which is the oldest professional golf tournament in the country.
Matt Wallace of England, who claimed his breakthrough win in India last month, carded a solid 65 to share second place with Nino Bertasio of Italy while in-form Scott Vincent of Zimbabwe stayed two shots off the pace in tied-fourth alongside Alexander Bjork of Sweden.
The 24th edition of the Volvo China Open is tri-sanctioned by the Asian Tour, European Tour and the China Golf Association. It is staged for the third successive year at the Topwin Golf and Country Club.
Did you know?
- Daxing Jin is making his fifth appearance in the Volvo China Open. He has never made the halfway cut in his National Open.
- Jin turned professional at the end of 2011. His golfing idol is Rory McIlroy.
- Jin missed only one green in regulation in his commendable round of 64.
- Jin’s father, Sanlu, is a teaching professional golfer.
- Jin claimed his first professional title on his local circuit in 2014.
- Hideto Tanihara sank the ace from 197 yards with an eight-iron to mark his career’s third hole-in-one.
- Tanihara signed for an opening 72 to sit in tied-74th place.
- Matt Wallace claimed his first Asian Tour win and second European Tour win at the co-sanctioned Hero Indian Open last month.
- Starting from 10, Wallace fired five birdies against a bogey to turn in 32. He traded another birdie against a bogey on his way home but managed to close out his round in style with an eagle-birdie from eighth.
- Wallace won the Alps Tour Order of Merit in 2016 after winning six times that year.
- Scott Vincent finished tied-fourth in Japan last week. It was his second top-10 result this season. He sits in 13th place on the Asian Tour Habitat for Humanity Standings.
- Vincent has his wife Kelsey on the bag this week. Kelsey also caddied for him in Japan last week.
- Vincent signaled his arrival in Asia when he came through the Asian Tour Qualifying School in 2016. He was named the Rookie of the Year after finishing in 28th position that year. He finished 17th on the money list in 2017 to retain his card for 2018.
- Vincent is the only Zimbabwean player on the Asian Tour.
Players’ quotes:
Daxing Jin (Chn) – First round 64 (-8)
I played really well today. I’m really happy with my form and I have to say I would give myself 100 marks for today’s round. I hardly give myself 100 marks when I play in tournaments but today was really good I thought.
My strategy today was just to hit the greens in the regulation and I did that for 17 of the 18 holes, and the one I missed I managed a par, so that was great. My putting was good too. I made three long putts out there. I am really pleased.
I don’t want to give myself too much pressure. It’s still very early. I will continue to do what I have been doing for the next three rounds. I will just keep targeting fairways and greens out there and then give myself chances for birdies.
On the eighth hole, I was about ten yards from the pin with my second shot and I saw Scott (Jamieson) make eagle from a similar position so I had confidence that I might chip it in. I read the line from Scott’s shot and holed it.
It wasn’t very windy out there today and it was a pretty smooth round for me. I was targeting two or three-under today but I did better than that. I am really happy. I will aim to make the cut first but I don’t want to think about it right now.
I don’t think there’s much advantage playing in the morning. I think the conditions are pretty much similar out there.
I’ve been relaxed coming into this week because I don’t have too much expectation but I’ll just keep playing one stroke at a time, one day at a time and see how it goes for me.
Matt Wallace (Eng) – First Round 65 (-7)
I made a couple of bogeys which were from a couple of swing errors but overall, I am swinging it great. I have been trying to shorten my swing for a while and that’s been my main swing thought coming into this week which helped massively.
I have never really managed to do it till last week when I found something and it’s a weird feeling. I feel like I am swinging it halfway but I am actually striking it better and not losing any distance.
My ball was slightly in the rough and I just hit a nice fade into the green with my three-iron and it turned out perfectly. Had a right-to-left putt from seven- feet and rolled it into the hole for eagle on the eighth.
I had a bogey on the fourth hole so it was a nice comeback. Birdied the last hole as well, just played it left-to-right the entire hole and the green slopes left-to-right. Hit my nine-iron into the green and had about six-feet for birdie.
I had a great group today and it was nice to catch up with Alexander Bjork and Julian Suri who I haven’t seen in a while. He was making a couple of birdies and I was making some too and we were rubbing off each other which was good.
This is my first full year on tour, I really like the country and I love the golf course and the weather was perfect today. I drove it well today which was key, setting it up nicely on the fairway so I can get it close on the green.
Scott Vincent (Zim) – First Round 66 (-6)
I hit a great drive with a solid five-iron into the middle of the green and rolled a straight putt in for eagle on the eighth hole. I didn’t feel that great before last week but managed to figure things out and get things moving in the right direction in time for this week.
There wasn’t a lot of wind and I took advantage of the morning conditions to get as many birdies as I could. Still a long way to go and I don’t want to get ahead of myself and I hope to keep things going.
My wife’s been an excellent caddy and she’s doing such a great job and I wouldn’t have anyone else on the bag. I enjoy having her around so I am not letting her go anytime soon.
Scores after round 1 of the Volvo China Open being played at the par 72, 7261 Yards Topwin GcC course (am – denotes amateur):
64 – JIN Daxing (CHN).
65 – Matt WALLACE (ENG), Nino BERTASIO (ITA).
66 – Alexander BJORK (SWE), Scott VINCENT (ZIM).
67 – Scott JAMIESON (SCO), Jason SCRIVENER (AUS).
68 – Julien GUERRIER (FRA), Marcus KINHULT (SWE), Andrea PAVAN (ITA), David LIPSKY (USA), Panuphol PITTAYARAT (THA), Adrian OTAEGUI (ESP), Gaganjeet BHULLAR (IND), Johannes VEERMAN (USA), LIN Yuxin (am, CHN), Soomin LEE (KOR).
69 – Keith HORNE (RSA), Alexander LEVY (FRA), Jordan SMITH (ENG), Jinho CHOI (KOR), Sam HORSFIELD (ENG), Blake SNYDER (USA), Arjun ATWAL (IND), Yuta IKEDA (JPN), Jorge CAMPILLO (ESP), Shubhankar SHARMA (IND), Nacho ELVIRA (ESP), Wade ORMSBY (AUS), Alvaro QUIROS (ESP), Andrew DODT (AUS), Masahiro KAWAMURA (JPN), Nicholas FUNG (MAS).
70 – Daisuke KATAOKA (JPN), James MORRISON (ENG), LI Haotong (CHN), Tapio PULKKANEN (FIN), Pablo LARRAZABAL (ESP), LIU Yanwei (CHN), Sam BRAZEL (AUS), Adilson DA SILVA (BRA), Lucas BJERREGAARD (DEN), Joost LUITEN (NED), WU Ashun (CHN), Ryan FOX (NZL), Phachara KHONGWATMAI (THA), Sihwan KIM (USA).
For full results, please download here.
