Taipei: Local prospects, Yeh Wei-tze and amateur Lee Chieh-po delighted the home crowd when they fired matching five-under-par 67s to share the third round lead at the Ballantine’s Taiwan Championship on Saturday.
The duo, who returned with the day’s lowest score, kept the local hopes alive by compiling a three-day total of nine-under-par-207 at the US$110,000 Asian Development Tour (ADT) event, which is the richest tournament on the schedule.
Canadian Lindsay Renolds carded a 69 to take a share of third place with overnight leader Steve Lewton of England, who signed for a disappointing 76 at the Sunrise Golf and Country Club.
Australian Daniel Bringolf, who opened with a 72, stayed a further shot back to settle for fifth while Japan’s Masaru Takahashi, China’s Han Ren, Chinese Taipei's Lu Wei-chih and England’s Grant Jackson were tied for sixth on matching 211s after rounds of 68, 68, 69 and 71 respectively.
Yeh, the 2000 Malaysian Open winner, is confident about his game but chose to play down any expectations as he enters the final round of the Ballantine’s Taiwan Championship tomorrow.
“I think I played quite smoothly today, despite the bogeys on the 9th and 11th holes. The conditions are really good out there and I can’t ask for more. I’ll just focus on my game and we’ll see how it turns out tomorrow,” said the experienced 40-year-old, who mixed his card with seven birdies against two bogeys.
Meanwhile, amateur Lee remained modest with his good performance and claimed that playing on his home course this week worked to his advantage.
“I am very happy with how I played today. It has been a great week so far. It’s my home course here at the Sunrise Golf and Country Club. It’s really an advantage for me because I’m familiar with this course. Hopefully I can play well again tomorrow,” said Lee.
“I’m not intending to turn professional for now. I think it’s still early. I will try and play as much as I can in big tournaments like this first so that I can gain more experiences. I’ll probably consider turning professional at the end of next year,” added the 18-year-old, who fired one eagle and six birdies against three bogeys.
Local player Wang Tsung-chieh’s joy of taking a share of the lead when he fired a 67 was short-lived as he was disqualified for submission of incorrect scores for holes 6 and 7.
The winner of the Ballantine’s Taiwan Championship will take home a prize purse of US$19,250 as well as six world ranking points.
All ADT events receive Official World Golf Ranking points, which will be used to determine the field for the World Cup of Golf in Melbourne in November and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Leading third round scores:
207 – YEH Wei-tze (TWN) 70-70-67, LEE Chieh-po (A) (TWN) 70-70-67
208 – Lindsay RENOLDS (CAN) 68-71-69, Steve LEWTON (ENG) 65-67-76
209 – Daniel BRINGOLF (AUS) 70-72-67
211 – Masaru TAKAHASHI (JPN) 73-70-68, HAN Ren (CHN) 72-71-68, LU Wei-chih (TWN) 72-70-69, Grant JACKSON (ENG) 70-70-71, Darren TAN (AUS) 72-72-68, CHAN Yih-shin (TWN) 74-70-68, SU Ching-an (TWN) 73-70-69, SUNG Mao-chang (TWN) 70-73-69, CHANG Tse-Peng (TWN) 72-70-70, LEE Yi-cheng (TWN) 74-67-71
