South Korea early leaders

Kyung Sook Kim, winner at the 1997 Korean Women’s Amateur Golf Championship, fired a two-over round to put the Koreans in the lead with a total of 144.Though the emergence of the leaders was no surprise, the Chinese Taipei team provided a lot of excitement to finish three strokes behind the Koreans at the end of the day. Lu Hsiao Chuan (72) and Hung Chin Huei (75) put the Sirikit Cup debutantes on the second spot, one-stroke ahead of New Zealand (148).

“The course has a very short yardage. The fairways are very narrow but I am getting the hang of it,” said Jeong, champion at the Korean Ladies Open last year.

Jeongstarted off well parring the first three-holes and firing a birdie on the 441-yard fourth. But on the par-4 fifth she erred with her third shot landing on the bunker. She managed to find the greens with next shot but two-putted for a double bogey. However, a birdie on the seventh evened the card again for her. Jeong went one-under on the 16th with a birdie but three-putted the last for a bogey and had to settle for a par round.

Compatriot Kyung had a more uneven round. She fired a total of five birdies but also had three bogeys and two double bogeys to go two-over at 73. However, one of the major highlight of Kyung’s play was that she never missed the fairways.

The major disappointments of the day were six-time champions Australia and holders Japan. The latter finished with a poor 156 and seemed more disappointed than anyone else. When one of the tournament official called them for lunch, a Japanese official said with a straight face: “No lunch for today. They played very badly.”

Shiho Oyama, 77, hadthe best card for the defending champions. With Kimiyo Yoshida, member of last year’s winning team, finishing with a dismal round of 81, Misato Nishikawa’s 79 was taken into account. In this 54-hole strokeplay event the best two of three cards by each team is taken the final analysis.

The Australians too failed to impress. “We struggled a bit on the greens,” said Michelle Ellis whose 76 was the best amongst the Australians. “Chipping is difficult here, quite unlike the ones back home. I guess some hasty decisions and lack of concentration did us in.”

The Indians also had an unimpressive start today. “The girls were a bit anxious. Playing in front of the home crowd can be very unnerving but I am confident about them,” defended Nonita Lal Qureshi, the Indian captain. India finished with a total of 156 and have only Philippines and Hong Kong below them. Urvashi Sethi Sodhi had the best card of 77 while Vandana Agarwal and Parnita Garewal finished with 79 each.

The Sri Lankans also provided some spiceto the day’s proceedings. Shyanika De Silva and Tuhashini Selvaratnam fired 75 each to put the unfancied Lankans on the top half of the table.

Team scores: 144: Korea; 147: Chinese Taipei; 148: New Zealand; 150: Malaysia, Sri Lanka; 155: Thailand, Australia; 156: India, Japan; 157: Philippines; 161: Hong Kong.

Leading Individual Scores: 71: Jeong Jang (Kor), Koe Lai Yin (Mal); 72: Lu Hsiao Chuan (Chi Tai); 73: Kyung Hee Cho (Kor); 74: Brenda Ormsky (NZ), Renee Fowler (NZ); 75: Hung Chin Huei (Chi Tai), Shayanika De Silva (SL), Tuhashini Selvaratnam (SL); 76: Michelle Ellis (Aus), Olivia Yu (Hong Kokng), Kyung Sook Kim (Kor), Tina Howard (NZ).