Australian Cameron Smith yesterday blitzed the Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club with a flawless eight-under-par 64 to take a one-stroke lead over a top-quality field after the opening round of the US$7 million CIMB Classic.
Smith, who won his first PGA title at the Zurich Classic team event in May, picked up five shots on the way out and three more over the final five holes to stand a shot clear of Thai Poom Saksansin and Americans Xander Schauffele and Keegan Bradley.
World No. 4 Justin Thomas, who has won the tournament for the past two years with a combined score of 49-under, left himself with some work to do in his quest for a three-peat after posting a two-under 70.
Hideki Matsuyama, who passed up the chance to defend his Japan Open title to play in Malaysia this week, is a spot above Thomas in the world rankings and matched his score yesterday after mixing four birdies with two bogeys.
Schauffele, who last month edged Thomas by a stroke to win the Tour Championship in Atlanta, Georgia, never looked back after opening with a birdie and then chipping in from off the green for another at his third hole.
The 23-year-old Californian, this year’s PGA Tour Rookie of the Year, picked up another five shots over the remaining 15 holes and suggested his error-free 65 had been as much the result of avoiding the lush tropical rough as anything.
“It was boring, which I guess is a good thing out here,” Schauffele said. “I hit a lot of fairways, kind of made an easy day out of it. I tried to copy everything [Justin] did, as I figured he’s a good guy to imitate out here.”
PGA Championship titleholder Thomas also picked up shots in two of his first three holes, but his round never really got going, despite the birdie-friendly conditions.
Two bogeys on his back nine left him six shots off the pace in a share of 23rd, but the 24-year-old cannot be written off after erasing a four-shot deficit in the final round to retain his title last year.
Taiwan’s Pan Cheng-tsung finished tied for 23rd after carding a two-under 70.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier