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Queensland’s Christopher Wood has continued his consistent start to the PGA TOUR Series-China season with a tie for 15th at the Nantong Championship at the Nantong Yangtze River Golf Club.
Queensland’s Christopher Wood has continued his consistent start to the PGA TOUR Series-China season with a tie for 15th at the Nantong Championship at the Nantong Yangtze River Golf Club.
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A birdie at the second playoff hole earned American Kevin Techakanokboon the title over England’s Stephen Lewton and move to the top of the Order of Merit.
Wood’s tie for 15th – coming on the back of two top-10 finishes already this season – moved him up nine places to 15th on the Order of Merit to lead the Australian contingent through the first six events of the year.
On a difficult final day for scoring, Wood made a promising start with a birdie at the par-4 second hole but gave that shot straight back at the par-4 third before dropping another shot at the 9th to turn in 1-over.
He fought hard over the closing nine holes with eight straight pars from the 10th hole but finished off in style with his first birdie of the week at the par-4 18th hole to sign for an even par 72.
Wood was the only Aussie under par on Sunday as the majority of the field struggled to stay in red numbers.
South Australian Max McCardle finished with a 3-over 75 to be tied for 28th level with James Marchesani (76) with Kevin Yuan (76) finishing tied for 33rd and Sunshine Coast rookie Charlie Dann (77) tied for 38th.
| Nantong Championship | |||
| Nantong Yangtze River Golf Club | |||
| T15 | Christopher Wood | 69-70-70-72—281 | ￥28,000 |
| T28 | Max McCardle | 72-70-70-75—287 | ￥11,584 |
| T28 | James Marchesani | 71-68-72-76—287 | ￥11,584 |
| T33 | Kevin Yuan | 70-70-72-76—288 | ￥9,760 |
| T38 | Charlie Dann | 68-72-73-77—290 | ￥8,000 |
| T51 | Tim Stewart | 68-74-74-78—294 | ￥5,520 |
| T58 | Sam An | 71-73-76-76—296 | ￥5,080 |
| MC | Aaron Wilkin | 71-75—146 | |
| MC | Corey Hale | 72-75—147 | |
| MC | Hayden Webb | 81-73—154 | |
| WD | Bryden MacPherson | 75-70-81—226 | |
| DNS | Aaron Pike | ||
| DNS | Luke Toomey |
Three birdies in the space of four holes has propelled Queensland’s Christopher Wood to his second top-10 of the season and a significant move up the PGA TOUR Series-China Order of Merit.
Three birdies in the space of four holes has propelled Queensland’s Christopher Wood to his second top-10 of the season and a significant move up the PGA TOUR Series-China Order of Merit.
A 7-under 65 from American Luke Kwon – who currently resides in New Zealand – saw the 26-year-old come from well back in the pack to record a one-shot win at the Qinhuangdao Championship, Wood the best of the Australians seven shots further back.
Tied for seventh at the Chongqing Championship last month, Wood was tied for 16th at the Australian PGA Championship at RACV Royal Pines Resort and has carried forward a strong finish to 2018 with some excellent results early this year.
The 28-year-old made his move with a bogey-free 4-under 68 in the third round at Qinhuangdao Poly Golf Club and continued his positive trend with a birdie blitz around the turn on Sunday.
Starting with a birdie at the par-4 8th, Wood picked up further shots at 10 and 11 to close out the week with a 3-under 69 and a move up to 17th on the moneylist.
New South Welshman Tim Stewart was one of the biggest improvers over the course of the final 36 holes, going one better than his 4-under 68 in the third round with a 5-under 67 on Sunday, the highlight a hole-out eagle at the 392-yard par-4 15th.
Qinhuangdao Championship
Qinhuangdao Poly Golf Club
T10 Christopher Wood 69-71-68-69—277
T12 Tim Stewart 73-70-68-67—278
T39 Max McCardle 70-72-70-72—284
T45 Ryan Chisnall 71-73-70-72—286
T48 Corey Hale 69-71-75-72—287
T48 James Grierson 71-73-74-69—287
52 Luke Toomey 72-72-73-71—288
T53 Aaron Wilkin 69-70-78-72—289
MC Kevin Yuan 73-72—145
MC Bryden MacPherson 73-73—146
MC James Marchesani 75-73—148
MC Hayden Webb 73-76—149
MC Charlie Dann 73-76—149
MC Sam An 73-77— 150
MC Peter Lamaris 82-74—156
The scoring was hot at the Muree Pro-Am with half of the 50 professionals shooting under par.
The scoring was hot at the Muree Pro-Am with half of the 50 professionals shooting under par.
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Chris Wood was the standout shooting a terrific round of 8-under 63 for a three-shot victory.
Wood sealed the deal with an eagle, par, birdie finish on his last three holes.
“I’ve been up playing in China the last couple of years which has been great for my game. It’s been difficult getting starts up there this year so I’ve been home a lot more. I thought the course was in great condition given the lack of rain in recent times," said Wood.
Tied for runner-up was Young Hyun Kim, Tim Hart and Rick Kulacz at 5 under 66.
Rounding out the top five with 4-under 67 was Steve Slappendel, Matthew Millar, Dale Williamson & Scott Arnold.
The NSW/ACT Swing will head to the Nelson Bay Pro-Am on Thursday & Friday.
A sizzling 4-under 68 saw Ashley Hall, Chris Wood and Matthew Millar through as the top three seeds into the match play round at the RACV Goldfields Super 6.
A sizzling 4-under 68 saw Ashley Hall, Chris Wood and Matthew Millar through as the top three seeds into the match play round at the RACV Goldfields Super 6.
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Hall goes through as the top seed on countback after a 3-under 33 back-9 ahead of Wood (34) and Millar (35). It was the eagle on the short par-5 16th hole that set up Hall’s round after opening with four straight pars. A great achievement given the gusty conditions, the only blemish on his card was a bogey on the par-3 8th hole.
Wood’s round was all about the par-5’s with birdies on all four of them. Wood also carded birdies on the 12th and the tough 14th holes but it was the bogeys on the 15th and 18th that saw him remain at 4-under 68 in a tie with Hall and Millar.
Millar is in outstanding form at the moment after a win on the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia at the REBEL Sport NZ Masters last week and a second place finish at the Neangar Park Ladbrokes Pro-Am earlier this week. Starting from the 1st tee Millar birdied the 2nd and the 4th holes before driving the green on the par-4 7th hole and tapping in for another easy birdie. Millar made the turn at 3-under after a strong birdie on the 9th and immediately followed it up with a birdie on the 10th.
The back-9 then got a little interesting for Millar, he birdied the 12th before making back-to-back bogeys on the 14th and 15th. Millar then eagled the 16th to take the outright lead from Hall and Wood. The par 4 18th was playing the toughest hole and Millar was another victim after making a bogey to finish at 4-under par 68.
The match play action gets underway Sunday morning at 7.15am with the top-8 seeds joining the action at 9.15am for round two.
“We don’t get a lot of chances to play match play in Professional golf, so this is going to be interesting tomorrow,” said Hall.
The match play format will be a great warm up for Millar who is already confirmed in the field for the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth, an ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia, European Tour and Asian Tour tri-sanctioned tournament, next month.
