Chinnarat and Steel share lead in Beijing

Thailand’s Chinnarat Phadungsil had lady luck shining down on him in the opening round at the Pine Valley Beijing Open as he joined Malaysia’s Iain Steel at the top of the pack on Thursday.

Chinnarat birdied his last three holes on the back nine for a solid seven-under-par 65 and matched the performance of early pace setter Steel at the Pine Valley Golf Club.

Australia’s Tony Carolan was a stroke back after a 66 in lone third place while Korean youngster Bae Sang-moon, who won the SK Telecom Open last year, was in the mix in joint fourth spot alongside Chinese Taipei’s Lin Keng-chi and Japanese trio of Hiroyuki Fujita, Takao Nagomi and Masao Nakajima.

Defending champion Gaurav Ghei endured a slow start when he shot a 73 in a tie for 84th place alongside China’s Zhang Lian-wei at the US$1 million event which is sanctioned for the first time by the Japan Golf Tour alongside the Asian Tour and China Golf Association.

But it was Chinnarat who was chalking up 20 foot birdie putts with ease on a wind swept day at the Nicklaus-designed course.

“I couldn’t believe how lucky I was today, it was amazing out there,” said Chinnarat, who fired nine birdies against two bogeys.

“On the seventh hole, my drive landed in a very deep divot and my playing partner Wang (Ter-chang) said that I was really unlucky. I was around 130 yards away from the pin. I then struck a decent second shot and was 25 yards out at the edge of the green. I was looking for a par but the ball rolled in for birdie. That was how my day went.

“I holed two good birdie putts on the third and fourth holes followed by a massive 20 foot birdie putt on the 16th. My dad also told me to relax on my swing before I headed out today and that helped so I’m very pleased.

China is a lucky place for me. I’ve had my fair share of missed cuts here but compared to all the luck that I have been enjoying, I am definitely looking forward to tomorrow,” added the 19-year-old Thai star, who tasted his last win in China at the 2006 Crowne Plaza Open.

The Chantaburi-based leader had previously emerged as the youngster winner on the Asian Tour at the 2005 Double A International Open.

Steel, who is of Scottish and Malaysian parentage, fired eight birdies against a lone bogey as he was pleased to return to the Pine Valley Golf Club.

“This is my second time playing here at the Pine Valley Golf Club. My game wasn’t sharp last year so I’m glad to be hitting it spot this week,” said Steel, who focused his game in United States before switching his attention to Asia in 2006.

“I’m not a long hitter but some of the pin placements here provide an opportunity for aggressive putts out there. I’ve played a lot of Nicklaus-designed courses back in United States and I enjoy his layouts. This is the kind of positive start that I was hoping for and I am eager to continue my momentum heading into the second round,” added Steel.

Australia’s Carolan was surprised with his 66 having battled the tricky conditions today.

“If someone told me that I’m going to shoot a six under today, I wouldn’t take it because of the windy conditions here. So I am very pleased with my opening round performance,” said Carolan.

Japan’s Fujita, who was the 2003 Okinawa Open winner, will be hoping for similar conditions as he was two strokes off the pace.

“The weather was really nice today which is important to players. I hope the conditions remain like this throughout the week. The Asian Tour has a lot of really good players reflected through the scores today and it’s been an exciting opening round for me,” said Fujita.

Leading first round scores

65 - Iain Steel (MAS), Chinnarat Phadungsil (THA)

66 - Tony Carolan (AUS)

67 - Lin Keng-chi (TPE), Masao Nakajima (JPN), Bae Sang-moon (KOR), Takao Nogami (JPN), Hiroyuki Fujita (JPN)

68 - Katsunori Kuwabara (JPN), Scott Hend (AUS), Cho Min-gyu (KOR), Masatsugu Morofuji (JPN)

69 - Gerald Rosales (PHI), Lu Wei-chih (TPE), Bryan Saltus (USA), Anthony Kang (USA), Naomi Ohta (JPN), Chawalit Plaphol (THA), Prayad Marksaeng (THA), Taichiro Kiyota (JPN), Kim Kyung-tae (KOR), Tetsuji Hiratsuka (JPN)

70 - Airil Rizman (MAS), Toshikazu Sugihara (JPN), David Bransdon (AUS), Kane Webber (AUS), Nobuhiro Masuda (JPN), Unho Park (AUS), Keith Horne (RSA), Koumei Oda (JPN), Lu Wen-teh (TPE), Wu Ashun (CHN), Kiradech Aphibarnrat (THA)

Masafumi Kawase (JPN), Makoto Inoue (JPN), Marcus Both (AUS), Kazuhiro Yamashita (JPN), Su Dong [ (CHN)