Taipei: Korean-American Chan Kim took advantage of a new swing change to grab the third round lead at the Yeangder Tournament Players Championship (TPC) with a four-under-par 68 on Saturday.
The Asian Tour rookie, who won the Qualifying School in January, leads the chasing pack on 10-under-par 206 at the US$500,000 Asian Tour event staged at the Linkou International Golf and Country Club.
Reigning Order of Merit winner Thaworn Wiratchant of Thailand returned with a 71 while Chinese Taipei’s Yeh Wei-tze posted a 67 courtesy of a chip-in eagle on the last to trail Kim by one-shot. Asian Development Tour (ADT) graduate Hsu Mong-nan was a further shot back.
Jaako Makitalo of Finland carded a 65, the lowest round of the week, to share fifth place with Korea’s Baek Seuk-hyun (69) and India’s Chiragh Kumar, who shot a disappointing 74.
The 23-year-old Kim, who has one top-10 result this season, stole the limelight with a refined swing which he worked on with his coach Scott Adland during the off-season.
“We’ve been working on the timing of my swing and making it simpler. It’s helping a lot especially down the stretch where you get tired. It’s very easy for you to swing out of sync but this week, my swing has a good tempo,” said Kim.
“I kind of feel a pause at the top (of the swing) and a lot of people talked about it but that’s my sensation. I feel like I should stay at the top for a quick second before making my down swing,” he added.
Kim started off strongly with three straight birdies from hole three and added a close range birdie on the last after hitting 12 straight pars.
“I just told myself to stay patient and keep grinding because birdies are not going to come easy out here. You got to work for the birdies so you have to keep trying to hit greens and hopefully make the putt,” he added.
Thaworn, the 2010 Yeangder TPC champion, played down his chances of winning his 16th Asian Tour title after struggling with his irons for the third day.
“It is really hard to say what will happen tomorrow. I haven’t been hitting my irons good enough so I’m just happy to shoot nine-under. I’ll have to continue doing what I’ve been doing and rely on my chipping and putting,” said the 46-year-old Thaworn.
The 40-year-old Yeh, who has one Asian Tour win in 2000, overcame the humid conditions to put himself in a strong position to become the second Chinese Taipei player after Lu Wei-chih to win the Yeangder TPC since 2011.
“In the past, I tend to mess up under such conditions but I told myself that I have to hang on. I want to bring glory to my country by winning on home soil. Therefore, I keep telling myself to do my best. I hope the other local players can play well too,” said Yeh.
Scores after round 3 of the Yeangder TPC being played at the par 72, 7125 Yards Linkou GCC course (a- denotes amateur):
206 - Chan KIM (USA) 70-68-68.
207 - YEH Wei-tze (TPE) 73-67-67, Thaworn WIRATCHANT (THA) 69-67-71.
208 - HSU Mong-nan (TPE) 69-68-71.
211 - Jaakko MAKITALO (FIN) 73-73-65, BAEK Seuk-hyun (KOR) 73-69-69, Chiragh KUMAR (IND) 68-69-74.
212 - LU Chien-soon (TPE) 72-72-68, Berry HENSON (USA) 71-70-71.
213 - Angelo QUE (PHI) 74-72-67, CHAN Shih-chang (TPE) 71-71-71.
214 - Gunn CHAROENKUL (THA) 72-75-67, Matthew STIEGER (AUS) 69-73-72, Thitiphun CHUAYPRAKONG (THA) 66-76-72, LAM Chih Bing (SIN) 72-70-72.
215 - Sam CYR (USA) 75-70-70, SUNG Mao-chang (TPE) 70-74-71, Thanyakon KHRONGPHA (THA) 71-72-72, Richard T. LEE (CAN) 74-68-73, Adam GROOM (AUS) 69-72-74, Tim STEWART (AUS) 70-69-76.
