Yanhan Zhou carded a sensational eight under par round of 62 to climb to the top of the leaderboard at the Austrian Alpine Open presented by Kitzbühel Tirol.
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The Chinese teenager is the youngest DP World Tour member this season and he reached eight under par at the picturesque Golfclub Kitzbühel-Schwarzsee-Reith, the 465th venue to stage a DP World Tour event, to move one-shot ahead of Portugal’s Ricardo Gouveia in second.
The 18-year-old earned his DP World Tour card by winning the China Tour’s Order of Merit last year having won seven times on home soil and he has already shown his potential on the global stage with a tie for third on home soil at the Volvo China Open.
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Starting at the tenth, he made three birdies in a four-hole stretch from the 13th that also included his only bogey of the day over his first nine holes.
He then birdied his opening three holes of his back nine, added another gain at the sixth before saving his best to last by holing an eagle putt at the ninth to claim the outright lead.
Gouveia, who has four top top tens this season, is 16 years Zhou’s senior and also bidding for a first DP World Tour win this week.
A seven-time HotelPlanner Tour winner, he bounced back from his lone bogey of the round at the third to card four birdies on both nines from then on in as he credited his putting as instrumental.
Rafa Cabrera Bello, who won Austria’s national open to claim his first DP World Tour title in 2009, is in a six-way share of third place on six under alongside Marcel Schneider, Tobias Jonsson, Davis Bryant, Lucas Bjerregaard and Brandon Robinson Thompson.
Brazil’s Frederico Biondi Figueiredo, a graduate of last year’s Qualifying School, made a hole in one at the seventh on his way to a 65, with local favourite Max Steinlechner also at five under.
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It was a landmark day for Scotland’s Marc Warren, who made his 500th start on the DP World Tour and was presented with a silver salver to mark the occasion.
Player Quotes
Yanhan Zhou: I hit it good today, very solid. I only made one bogey, which is very nice and I made so many putts, I think I’m just a little bit lucky today. I keep very patient, so I get a good opening run.
On my last hole, the ninth, I just hit a perfect three-wood shot and another perfect shot on the green. I holed a 30-foot putt up the hill and that was just my day.
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The back nine is pretty flat and we can climb the hills on the front nine. I like the course, it’s beautiful. On the 18th there’s water in front of the green, you must be careful on 17 and 18.
I’m just here for normal things. I’m the youngest player on the DP World Tour so I just want to play good golf. There are no goals for me, I just want to keep improving myself in the golf skills and the mindset.
Ricardo Gouveia: The weather is perfect, but you’ve got to hit fairways to create chances. I was able to either knock it on the green and two putt or get it up and down. The difference was the putter today. I holed a lot of good putts and that’s why my score was so low.
My approach play has been a lot better recently, but I haven’t done anything completely different. Just kept doing the same things, had to be patient and wait for the scores to come. Then I built a bit of confidence in Turkey and Barcelona. It just seems like I’m comfortable in keeping it going.
It’s an amazing course. Just the views that you have around the golf course and then, like you said, 18 being a par-three that you’re playing on to a mountain. It’s weird but it’s amazing at the same time. It’s going to be a really nice hole to finish come Sunday.
