Romain Langasque made seven birdies in a row to take a share of the lead at the Volvo China Open on Thursday.
“The last time I played here I finished in fifth place. I like this course and I like the way you have to plot your way round. I’ll be honest and admit that I didn’t believe that I could shoot nine under par today so I’m delighted.
“It gives me confidence that I have played well on this golf course in the past and I felt comfortable out there today. I didn’t try too hard today and that approach paid off.”
The Frenchman and Sweden’s Sebastian Söderberg both shot bogey-free, 9-under 63s.
Söderberg leads the Asian Swing Rankings which concludes on Sunday. The winner will gain £200,000 in prize money, exemption for the Back 9 events of the DP World Tour campaign and the top three will gain a spot at the US PGA Championship.
“I guess it would be really nice,” said Söderberg. “It is the first Swing I have been involved in and I’m not really that focused on putting tournaments together like that usually. But obviously it means spots into a Major, then you are paying extra attention to stuff like that.”
China’s Haotong Li shot a bogey-free 64 to take solo third place at 8-under followed a shot further back by the Czech Republic’s Gordon Brixi and and France’s Julien Guerrier who both stayed bogey-free as well as Italy’s Guido Migliozzi.
Related: Charley Hull, Danielle Kang and Hyo-Joo Kim headline Aramco Team Series in South Korea
| Pos. | Player | To Par | R1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | LANGASQUE, Romain | -9 | 63 |
| | SÖDERBERG, Sebastian | -9 | 63 |
| 3 | LI, Haotong | -8 | 64 |
| 4 | BRIXI, Gordan | -7 | 65 |
| | MIGLIOZZI, Guido | -7 | 65 |
| | GUERRIER, Julien | -7 | 65 |
| 7 | JARVIS, Casey | -6 | 66 |
| | SORDET, Clément | -6 | 66 |
| | GIRRBACH, Joel | -6 | 66 |
| | CELLI, Filippo | -6 | 66 |
| SHARMA, Shubhankar | -6 | 66 | |
| | LOMBARD, Zander | -6 | 66 |
| | ARMITAGE, Marcus | -6 | 66 |
| | WARING, Paul | -6 | 66 |
| 15 | HILLIER, Daniel | -5 | 67 |
| | WANG, Jeunghun | -5 | 67 |
| | OTAEGUI, Adrian | -5 | 67 |
| | PAUL, Yannik | -5 | 67 |
| | SCHOTT, Freddy | -5 | 67 |
| | WIEBE, Gunner | -5 | 67 |
| | NORGAARD, Niklas | -5 | 67 |
| | SCHWAB, Matthias | -5 | 67 |
| 23 | MOLINARI, Edoardo | -4 | 68 |
| | KO, Jeong weon | -4 | 68 |
| | GO, Lloyd Jefferson | -4 | 68 |
| ROZNER, Antoine | -4 | 68 | |
| | YANG, Yinong | -4 | 68 |
| | DE JAGER, Louis | -4 | 68 |
| | LAW, David | -4 | 68 |
| 30 | KODAIRA, Satoshi | -3 | 69 |
| | GOUVEIA, Ricardo | -3 | 69 |
| | PAVAN, Andrea | -3 | 69 |
| | COCKERILL, Aaron | -3 | 69 |
| | Jin, Zihao | -3 | 69 |
| | ELVIRA, Manuel | -3 | 69 |
| | JAMIESON, Scott | -3 | 69 |
| | SVENSSON, Jesper | -3 | 69 |
| | TANG, Haizhao | -3 | 69 |
| | LUITEN, Joost | -3 | 69 |
| | VAILLANT, Tom | -3 | 69 |
| | HIDALGO, Angel | -3 | 69 |
| | BESARD, Matthis | -3 | 69 |
| | HELLIGKILDE, Marcus | -3 | 69 |
| | APHIBARNRAT, Kiradech | -3 | 69 |
| | YE, Wo-cheng | -3 | 69 |
| | HUANG, Zijie | -3 | 69 |
| | ELVIRA, Nacho | -3 | 69 |
| | BAIRSTOW, Sam | -3 | 69 |
| | VEERMAN, Johannes | -3 | 69 |
| 50 | FANG, Zeqian (AM) | -2 | 70 |
| SCALISE, Lorenzo | -2 | 70 | |
| | BRADBURY, Dan | -2 | 70 |
| | LACROIX, Frederic | -2 | 70 |
| | CHOUHAN, Om Prakash | -2 | 70 |
| | SMITH, Jordan | -2 | 70 |
| | TARRIO, Santiago | -2 | 70 |
| | SUWANNARUT, Sarit | -2 | 70 |
| | MCKIBBIN, Tom | -2 | 70 |
| | KINHULT, Marcus | -2 | 70 |
| | STRYDOM, Ockie | -2 | 70 |
| | CHANG, Tse-Yu | -2 | 70 |
| | CANTERO, Ivan | -2 | 70 |
| | BLIXT, Jonas | -2 | 70 |
| | WINTHER, Jeff | -2 | 70 |
| | SCRIVENER, Jason | -2 | 70 |
| | WU, Ashun | -2 | 70 |
| | FRITTELLI, Dylan | -2 | 70 |
| | SULLIVAN, Andy | -2 | 70 |
| | CHEN, Yilong | -2 | 70 |
| | KAWAMURA, Masahiro | -2 | 70 |
| | WU, Hongfu | -2 | 70 |
| | GREEN, Gavin | -2 | 70 |
| 73 | CAO, Senshou | -1 | 71 |
| | PENGE, Marco | -1 | 71 |
| | PARATORE, Renato | -1 | 71 |
| | LARRAZÁBAL, Pablo | -1 | 71 |
| | ZANOTTI, Fabrizio | -1 | 71 |
| | SADDIER, Adrien | -1 | 71 |
| | JORDAN, Matthew | -1 | 71 |
| | MORRISON, James | -1 | 71 |
| | BALDWIN, Matthew | -1 | 71 |
| | ZHOU, Yanhan | -1 | 71 |
| | ZHOU, Ziqin (AM) | -1 | 71 |
| | MA, Bingwen (AM) | -1 | 71 |
| | ZHANG, Xiaolang | -1 | 71 |
| | FISHER, Ross | -1 | 71 |
| | ZHANG, Huilin | -1 | 71 |
| | DEL REY, Alejandro | -1 | 71 |
| | LEVY, Alexander | -1 | 71 |
| | COUSSAUD, Ugo | -1 | 71 |
| | HANNA, Chase | -1 | 71 |
| | WIESBERGER, Bernd | -1 | 71 |
| 93 | GALLACHER, Stephen | Par | 72 |
| | KIEFFER, Maximilian | Par | 72 |
| | SYME, Connor | Par | 72 |
| | XUE, Han | Par | 72 |
| | KHO, Taichi | Par | 72 |
| | DANTORP, Jens | Par | 72 |
| | MANASSERO, Matteo | Par | 72 |
| | HAK, Shun Yat | Par | 72 |
| CABRERA BELLO, Rafa | Par | 72 | |
| | RAMSAY, Richie | Par | 72 |
| | LAPORTA, Francesco | Par | 72 |
| | PAEZ, Nicolas | Par | 72 |
| | TONG, Yang | Par | 72 |
| | HILL, Calum | Par | 72 |
| | LONG, Hurly | Par | 72 |
| | ZHANG, Jinshen | Par | 72 |
| | JIAN, Chuan-lin | Par | 72 |
| | MUIR, Kieran | Par | 72 |
| 111 | HUANG, Wenyi | +1 | 73 |
| | HUANG, Yi-Tseng | +1 | 73 |
| | SHE, Zihan | +1 | 73 |
| | BRUN, Julien | +1 | 73 |
| | KRUYSWIJK, Jacques | +1 | 73 |
| | FORREST, Grant | +1 | 73 |
| | LORENZO-VERA, Mike | +1 | 73 |
| | CHEN, Guxin | +1 | 73 |
| | VAN DRIEL, Darius | +1 | 73 |
| | XIAO, Bowen | +1 | 73 |
| | BAI, Zhengkai | +1 | 73 |
| 122 | COLSAERTS, Nicolas | +2 | 74 |
| | ZHANG, Jin | +2 | 74 |
| | LI, Linqiang | +2 | 74 |
| | MA, Chengyao | +2 | 74 |
| | JIN, Daxing | +2 | 74 |
| | STONE, Brandon | +2 | 74 |
| | SHEN, Nan-nan | +2 | 74 |
| | SOUTHGATE, Matthew | +2 | 74 |
| | ZHANG, Zi-Hong | +2 | 74 |
| | JIN, Cheng | +2 | 74 |
| 132 | JUNG, Woojin | +3 | 75 |
| | FAN, Jicheng | +3 | 75 |
| | LIU, Enhua | +3 | 75 |
| | ZHANG, Changlei | +3 | 75 |
| 136 | FAN, Shiyu | +4 | 76 |
| | FANG, Xiang | +4 | 76 |
| | NAN, Chenyou | +4 | 76 |
| | LIN, K.P. | +4 | 76 |
| | NEMECZ, Lukas | +4 | 76 |
| 141 | LUO, Xuewen | +5 | 77 |
| | ZHANG, Lianwei | +5 | 77 |
| | YE, Jianfeng | +5 | 77 |
| 144 | FRIEDRICHSEN, Sebastian | +6 | 78 |
| | WU, Di | +6 | 78 |
| 146 | QIU, Yongqi | +7 | 79 |
| | ENEFER, Will | +7 | 79 |
| | KJELDSEN, Søren | +7 | 79 |
| | ARNAUS, Adri | +7 | 79 |
| | QUAN, Gang | +7 | 79 |
| | ZHAO, Xingyu | +7 | 79 |
| 152 | WU, Tuxuan | +8 | 80 |
| | JACKSON, Grant | +8 | 80 |
| | TING, Lawrence | +8 | 80 |
| 155 | WORRALL, George | +9 | 81 |
| 156 | SHAO, Minghao (AM) | +11 | 83 |
Simon Bale
The editorial team at Golf Today strives to provide readers with captivating content that celebrates the rich heritage and exciting developments in the world of golf. Their collective expertise and dedication ensure that Golf Today remains a premier destination for golf enthusiasts seeking the latest news, insightful analysis, and engaging stories from the world of golf.