Chinese Taipei’s Chuan-Tai Lin and China’s Wenyi Ding shared the 36-hole lead at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship on a day when Royal Melbourne’s fickle breezes brought many rounds undone.
Chinese-Taipei’s ‘Teddy’ Lin fired the day’s lowest score, a 4-under 67 that catapulted him into a tie for the lead. He credited his caddie, a Royal Melbourne member, for his place atop the leaderboard.
“[Tim’s] a lovely guy, and definitely helped me save one or two strokes today. He knows the course and he knows [it’s] really firm and you need to hit it ten yards short of the green and just bounce up. Especially on 5, I was going to hit a soft 7 [iron], but he’s like ‘Trust me’, 8 is going to get there. I hit it to two feet and made a birdie there.”
China’s highest-ranked amateur Ding carded a 1-under 70 also in the morning. The 2022 US Junior Amateur champion became the first Chinese winner of a USGA event and is now his nation’s best hope of a record fifth Asia-Pacific title.
Just six players remained under par after on a sun-drenched day offset by tricky winds as Royal Melbourne’s treacherous slick surfaces came to the fore.
Overnight leader Kazuma Kobori of New Zealand carded a 4-over 75, which was nine strokes worse than his opening round. Kobori admitted afterwards that he struggled when his group of Japan’s Yuta Sugiura and China’s Bo Jin were put on the clock for slow play in the afternoon.
“I’m thankful to be two shots off the lead after shooting that,” Kobori said.
Kobori is tied for third at 1-under par alongside fellow Kiwi Jimmy Zheng (69), Australia’s Billy Dowling (73) and Indonesia’s Randy Bintang (69). Gold Coast teenager Dowling put himself in contention for the coveted invitations to the Masters Tournament and The Open despite never having played Royal Melbourne prior to this week.
Another Australian, Jasper Stubbs (74), is three strokes from the lead while the nation’s highest-ranked amateur Jeffrey Guan (71) is five behind in 12th. Twelve of the 13 Australians in the field were in the top 60 and ties to make the weekend action.
In a positive for the Asia-Pacific region, 11 players from developing golf nations survived the cut to surpass the championship record.
