China's Yuan, Singapore's Yap in four-way tie at Qingdao Championship

Yuan Yechun

HAIYANG, SHANDONG, CHINA—Chinese amateur "Carl" Yuan Yechun fired nine birdies in a 6-under 66 to share the first-round lead with Singapore's Jesse Yap, America's Charlie Netzel and England's Michael Skelton at the RMB 1.5 million Qingdao Championship, the eighth event of this year's PGA TOUR Series-China.
England's Callum Tarren, who has five runner-up finishes on the Tour since his debut in 2016, shot 67 to lie fifth at Tiger Beach Golf Links, a sister course to Carnoustie, host of The Open Championship this week.
Japan's Ryoma Iwai shot 68 to take sixth, one ahead of Australia's Max McCardle, Chinese Taipei's Chunkang “Jacob” Hung and American Kevin Techakanokboon.
Yuan, 21, tied for third at last week's Yantai Championship and started with two birdies before adding two more on the front nine against two bogeys to make the turn at 2-under. On the back nine, he picked up further birdies on Nos. 11, 12, 14, 15 and 17 before closing with a bogey.

Jesse Yap

"I feel great about today. I took my chances on the four par-5s and birdied three of them. My strategy was pretty solid. I hit the ball in the right spots and didn't give myself any hard times in the long grass, which was huge for me," said Yuan.
"I've played quite a lot of links courses, maybe 15 or 16 rounds, in Scotland, Wales and England, so I've got a lot of experience and it definitely helped me a lot here. I know how to hit the ball low, how to hit the ground and how to judge the wind."
Yap, 26, was bogey-free in his first event on a links course, carding six birdies in tricky conditions to match his lowest score on this year's Tour. He shot a closing 5-under 66 in last month's Kunming Championship to finish 11th and last week tied for 29th in Yantai, and believes he enjoyed the rub of the green at Tiger Beach.
"I played really well and got a bit lucky, finding a couple of balls that missed the fairway," said Yap, who attended California Polytechnic State University after serving his mandatory two-year military service in Singapore.
"This is probably the first links course I've played, but it's a lot of fun. It's a good test and different to what we've been playing so far."
Netzel continued his fine debut season, having not missed a cut in seven events and not shot over par in his last 16 rounds, starting from the first round of the Haikou Championship.
Despite not having much experience on links-style courses, the 23-year-old from Illinois carded seven birdies and one bogey.
"I haven't played many links courses and I've never been over to Europe, but my course at home in Chicago is very firm and there are no trees, so I'm used to the sightline they have out here and I feel pretty comfortable," said Netzel, who graduated from Michigan State University last year.
"It's a great course, I love it. It's different to what we've seen all year, so it's really fun to try your game on a harder course and something very different from what we're used to."
Skelton, 34, who teed off on 10, grew up playing in links conditions, but was still left a little shocked by his ‘stunning' bogey-free round in his fourth event on Tour since recovering from injury.
"The first 15 holes were just quite stunning, actually," said Skelton. "I don't want to force anything tomorrow. Today I wasn't expecting that, it just happened."
Every tournament on this year's PGA TOUR Series-China offers RMB 1.5 million, a 25-percent increase over purse levels from 2016. 
The PGA TOUR established PGA TOUR Series-China in 2014 as its third international developmental tour, following in the footsteps of PGA TOUR Latinoamerica and the Mackenzie Tour – PGA TOUR Canada. Since its inception, PGA TOUR Series-China players have received Official World Golf Ranking points for top finishes at official tournaments.