Haotong Li continued his good form to hold a share of the clubhouse lead alongside Kiradech Aphibarnrat and Kristoffer Reitan before thunder and lightning brought an early finish to the first day at the Hainan Classic.
Li, a winner earlier this season in Qatar, was in contention to claim victory on home soil at last week’s Volvo China Open before settling for a tie for fourth and maintained that momentum as he mixed seven birdies with a bogey for an opening six-under-par 66.
His total was matched by fellow four-time DP World Tour winner Aphibarnrat and Norwegian HotelPlanner Tour graduate Reitan as the morning wave faced hot conditions at Mission Hills Resort Haikou.
Denmark’s Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen was the best placed of the afternoon starters as the impressive 25-year-old reached five under through 13 holes - a score posted earlier by emerging home talent Zihao Jin - before inclement weather led to play being suspended for the day.
“Even if the fairways are quite wide you still have to hit a good tee-shot," said Li of the challenge posed by the Blackstone Course - a new venue on the DP World Tour.
"My approach shots were really good today [and] I’ve been holing some putts. Overall, it was just a good day."
Starting from the tenth, Li made his first birdie of the day at the par-five 12th, before back-to-back gains at the 14th and 15th saw him head into his back nine at three under.
He dropped his first shot of the day at the first, but he entertained the home fans with a run of four birdies in six holes from the second through to the seventh to be the first player to set the target.
But he was soon joined there by Aphibarnrat, a past winner in China at the Shenzhen International in 2015, who spoke last week of his belief his next win on the DP World Tour is not “far away”.
Like Li, the popular 35-year-old began on the back nine and quickly hit his stride as he birdied three of his opening four holes, before cancelling out a bogey at the 14th with another birdie at the par-three 15th.
Three consecutive birdies from the first saw him surge into the lead but he required a closing gain at the ninth to move alongside fellow Asian star Li after a second dropped shot at the eighth.
“Really happy with the way I am playing," said Aphibarnrat, who finished in a tie for tenth last week in Shanghai.
"Ball striking seems good, holed a lot of putts.
"Hopefully my shoulder should be good. I felt a little bit tight today, just coming off a bad sleep last night, but overall, I started good."
Asked about the hot conditions, he added: "Actually, this is really similar with my country.
"A lot of players have been saying I can take advantage of this but it’s important they know that if it is this hot, I am not (normally) playing golf!"
Since winning the Rolex Grand Final supported by the R&A last year to earn his DP World Tour card, Reitan has yet to show his best but will take great confidence from his start to the final event of the Asian Swing.
After an eagle at the par-five second, he mixed a birdie at the fourth with a bogey at the ninth to hit the turn at two under, before four back-nine birdies saw him reflect on a mental shift paying dividends.
“I was struggling the last couple of days with my swing, [but] I just found something that made me commit a little more to my shots and that worked a lot,” he said.
“I had a little bit of luck in there as well. It felt like my type of day. I was happy with that, for sure.
“It’s not necessarily a technical thing, more a mental thing that affects the technical part of it as well. Just trying to free it up a little bit more which means more rotation, more of an athletic move.
“I think over time the more tournament pressure I get shorter, deeper and fiddlier so I am just trying to take that out of it.
“It worked well for me at the end of last year, so I am trying to get back to the basics a little bit.”
Players yet to complete their first round will resume play at 07:00am local time, with the start of the second round pushed back to 08:45 at the earliest.
