A scintillating opening round of 63 has propelled Maverick Antcliff to his best finish on the Asian Tour at the Bangabandhu Cup Golf Open 2019 at Kurmitola Golf Club in Bangladesh.

The Wednesday start suited the Queenslander to a tee as he bolted out of the blocks with an 8-under par opening round that saw him sitting atop the leaderboard at the end of Round 1.

Starting the second round two shots behind Antcliff, Thailand’s Sadom Kaewkanjana followed it up with a 9-under 62 to assume the lead through 36 holes, a lead he never relinquished, finishing a shot to the better of India’s Ajeetesh Sandhu at 19-under par.

Tied for 21st at the SEC NZ PGA Championship, Antcliff was under par in each of his four rounds as he finished seven shots adrift of the winner, his cheque for $US17,500 his best in three years on the Asian Tour.

In 14 events last year Antcliff won just over $45,000 to finish 77th on the Habitat for Humanity standings, his first start in Asia for 2019 moving him up to 44th in the standings that are led by fellow Queenslander Scott Hend.

West Australian Daniel Fox was the next best of the Aussies in Bangladesh in a tie for 15th with Terry Pilkadaris a shot further back in a tie for 20th.

A 3-under par round of 68 moved Travis Smyth up into a tie for 41st in the final round, one shot better than Jack Munro in a tie for 48th.

At the PGA TOUR Series-China Sanya Championship, the sudden and tragic passing of Malaysian golfer Arie Irawan saw the final round cancelled and American Trevor Sluman, the 54-hole leader, declared the champion.

Having come through Monday qualifying along with fellow Aussie Aaron Wilkin, Corey Hale was the pick of the Australians in a tie for 11th at Yalong Bay Golf Club.

Opening with consecutive rounds of 3-under 69, Hale shot 68 in the third round to sit just outside the top-10 through 54 holes.

Wilkin also made the most of his Monday qualifying to make the cut before finishing tied for 56th while rookie Charlie Dann recorded his second straight top-20 finish, rounds of 67-69-71 good enough for a tie for 18th.

Asian Tour
Bangabandhu Cup Golf Open 2019
Kurmitola Golf Club, Bangaldesh
4             Maverick Antcliff              63-70-69-70—272            $US17,500
T15        Daniel Fox                          69-67-73-68—277            $4,435
T20        Terry Pilkadaris                 72-69-70-67—278            3,706
T41        Travis Smyth                      72-71-72-68—283            1,937
T48        Jack Munro                        70-72-73-69—284            1,610

PGA TOUR Series-China
Sanya Yalong Bay Golf Club, Hainan Island
T11        Corey Hale                         69-69-68—206
T18        Charlie Dann                      67-69-71—207
T27        James Marchesani            70-70-69—209
T38        Bryden MacPherson         68-70-73—211
T56        Aaron Wilkin                      68-72-75—215
T58        Kevin Yuan                         73-68-76—217
MC         Max McCardle                   71-71—142
MC         Christopher Wood            70-73—143
MC         Ryan Chisnall                     69-74—143
MC         Luke Toomey                     73-73—146