Conor Purcell fired an opening five-under-par 67 at Danzhou Ancient Saltern Golf Club to end the day tied for third at the Challenge Tour’s Hainan Open in China.
Starting on the back nine, the Portmarnock man, who began the week in 37th place on the Race to Mallorca rankings, birdied both of his opening two holes and added two more at 13 and 17 to make the turn at -4.
He’d take care of both par-5s on the front side to move to six-under through 15 before a bogey, his only one of the day, at the seventh dropped him back to -5 which is where he’d finish. Needing to place in the top 45 of the rankings after this week, his opening effort sees him climb to a projected 25th in the standings, with the top-20 after next month’s Grand Final earning promotion to the DP World Tour for 2024.
Jonathan Caldwell, the only other Irishman in the field at Hainan Island, bogeyed two of his final five holes to end the day on -1 and tied for 40th. Caldwell came into the week ranked 71st in the Race to Mallorca and will likely need a podium finish to push his way into the field at Spain’s Alcanada.
China’s Chuan-lin Jian posted a sensational bogey-free nine-under 63 to take first-round-leader honours. The 29-year-old carded an eagle and three birdies on his front nine to make the turn at five under par, before adding four more birdies on his back nine to climb to the top of the leaderboard, three clear of amateur and fellow countryman Wenyi Ding who occupies second place on six under.
Jian was delighted with his opening display on home turf and believes accuracy with his approach shots was paramount to keeping bogeys off the scorecard in Hainan.
“It felt good to keep a clean scorecard today,” he said. “My driver was very good and my approach shots were accurate. I missed a lot of birdie putts, and I was very rarely in danger of making bogey.
“The only hole that I missed the green on was the par three and I left myself a ten foot putt in order to save par, and I made it. That putt encouraged me a lot and gave me lots of confidence.
“The highlight of my day was the 11th/hole because my tee shot was not great, but I hit a brilliant second shot from 178 yards away. I used a six-iron and aimed down the left side, and the wind brought the ball back towards the hole and I managed to make an eagle two.”
Jian admits he has already thought about the prospect of playing in Europe next season, with the winner of the Hainan Open earning category one playing rights on the European Challenge Tour for 2024.
“I will try my best to stay on top in the next few days,” he said. “To achieve that I will need to do my best in every round and every shot. If I manage to win this week, I will seriously consider about the opportunity to play a full season on the European Challenge Tour.”
Six-time Challenge Tour winner Ricardo Gouveia, Switzerland’s Joel Girrbach, Sweden’s Jesper Svensson, Frenchman Frederic Lacroix and Chinese Daxing Jin share third place with Purcell on -5.
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