Chinese-Taipei’s Chang Wei-lun upstaged a stellar field at the inaugural International Series England today to take the first-round lead with a six-under-par 65.
The little-known golfer, a winner on the Asian Development Tour (ADT) in 2017, birdied his last three holes at Slaley Hall Hotel, Spa & Golf Resort, near Newcastle, to finish the day ahead of six players who carded 67s: Thailand’s Jazz Janewattananond, Tanapat Pichaikool, and Kasidit Lepkurte, Korean Joohyung Kim and India’s Shiv Kapur and S.S.P. Chawrasia.
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“My family gave me some advice before I flew here,” said Chang.
“My grandfather is a professional golfer, and my uncle is a coach. They told me the first and third days are the most important. So, I was just trying to stay focused out there. They told me to just play consistently.”
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The signs have been there that the 28-year-old has been threatening something special as when the Asian Tour restarted at the end of last year, after a two-year gap because of the pandemic, he confidently made the cut in all four of the final events of the 2020-22 season.
He added: “Coming into this week, I wasn’t thinking too much. I have been playing well this season, but I know I can do better. The weather was much cooler than I expected. I was actually more concerned about the weather, so I prepared myself for bad weather conditions, but today’s condition is actually not too bad.”
Six-time Asian Tour winner Jazz said he has really benefited from catching up with his coach Pete Cowen this week.
“My game is getting better, training the right way since beginning of the year. Hitting good, just waiting for the scoring to come back,” said Jazz.
“I haven’t seen my coach Pete Cowen much. I saw him in Dubai but that was a while ago, and I saw him at the British Masters, and he is here this week with G-Mac [Graeme McDowell] so it has been really great, as obviously it’s just me and G-Mac so I can have as much time with him as possible.”
The 2019 Asian Tour number one was in impressive form: he made nine pars on the front and toured the back nine in four under with birdies on 10, 11, 14 and 16.
“We are just getting back to what we were doing in 2019. Working out why I was swinging it great in 2019 and what I am doing now. It’s really hard to explain. It’s a lot of small things. It’s like one of those games when you have a picture and you have to spot the small things. But mostly it’s timing. When you don’t see your coach for a while you just start getting lose.”
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Last year’s top ranked player on the Asian Tour, Kim three putted 18 for a bogey to slip back into the pack but he was content with his round considering the foreign conditions.
Said the 19-year-old: “It was great. I actually had some hard situations that I made par with. Obviously, it would have been nice to have two putted 18. It’s just the first round, I have a lot of golf to play. Leading after the first round doesn’t mean I am going to lead on Sunday. It got really cold out there in the afternoon, so it was tough, especially over the last six holes. It is the kind of situation we don’t normally have in Asia, but I think I adapted really well.”
American Sihwan Kim, who currently leads the Asian Tour Order of Merit, started well with a 70, while playing partner Ratchanon “TK” Chantananuwat, the 15-year-old amateur sensation from Thailand, shot a 71.
