Adam Scott put his experience of weather-interrupted golf tournaments to good use in China when he moved into the lead after the first round of the delayed Johnnie Walker Classic at the Pine Valley Golf Resort & Country Club in Beijing.
The 24 year old Australian – who won the Nissan Open on the US PGA Tour in February after it had been reduced to 36 holes – finished a superb course record nine under par 63 on Friday morning after managing only three hours play on Thursday before severe winds caused an abandonment of the day’s play in the middle of the morning.
Scott led the tournament – tri sanctioned by The European, Australasian and Asian Tours - at that time on three under par after ten holes, but completed the final eight holes of his round – played in idyllic windless conditions – in sensational fashion, being six under par for the stretch.
It gave the four time winner on The European Tour International Schedule a three shot lead over his nearest challenger – Thailand’s Chawalit Plaphol who carded a 66 – while his playing partner Sergio Garcia of Spain, Australia's Marcus Fraser and Wang Ter-Chang of Chinese Taipei opened with respective 67s.
“I was up pretty early, about 4.30am, and I’m going to go back to bed now,” said Scott. “But it is pretty much standard practice for me nowadays because seven of my last eight events have featured a full day weather delay. So I’m getting used to it.
“It was such a shame yesterday. The weather was fine but it was just too windy. The greens were quick, everything was perfect but there was just too much wind. Today was totally different and I got off to a good start and finished well – it just felt like things were going my way.”
Scott began at the second hole with a two putt birdie four and immediately followed that with another birdie three at the third where he holed from four feet. But it was his final three holes of the day - the seventh, eighth and ninth – that he really sparkled.
A precise sand wedge approach at the seventh yielded a birdie three while a stunning four iron second at the par five eighth to within inches of the hole saw him notch an eagle three. Not to be outdone, he birdied the ninth as well, pitching in from 20 feet.
Second placed Plaphol also finished with a birdie on the ninth hole while made up for his only bogey of the day at the short sixth where he missed the green and failed to get up and down.
Scott’s playing partner Garcia kept up his challenge with a tidy finish to his round too, birdieing the sixth, eighth and ninth holes to keep in sight of Scott.
“Yesterday was really tough with the wind but I managed to get it to one under par through ten holes and today I played well coming in, every birdie was simple and I had two two putts on the par fives and hit it really close on the last hole so it was a pretty easy five under par,” he said.
