It took Maverick Antcliff three years to record his first win as a professional; it has taken just seven days to secure his second.

Antcliff shot back-to-back rounds of 6-under 66 over the weekend to win the China Golf Tour’s Shenzhou Peninsula Open by four shots on a leaderboard dominated by Australians.

After a superb 7-under 65 in the opening round, Jackson Dick led at the halfway mark before finishing tied for sixth with Bryden MacPherson fifth and New Zealand’s Kieran Muir tied for second.

Kevin Yuan and Kade McBride rounded out those to finish inside the top-10 in a tie for ninth with Cory Crawford two shots further back in a tie for 17th.

Following his win at the season-opening Bo Ao Open a week ago, Antcliff opened with a 1-under par round of 71 at the Tom Weiskopf-designed The Dunes Golf Club in Wanning, Hainan.

Out in 2-under 32 in the final round, Antcliff was tied for the lead with China’s Jin Cheng but took a stranglehold on the tournament with an eagle at the par-5 10th.

He followed it up with consecutive birdies at 11 and 12 and all of a sudden had a three-shot cushion with just six holes left to play.

His second bogey of the round came at the par-3 15th but he steadied and added another birdie at the par-4 17th for a comfortable winning margin.

Fourth at the Asian Tour’s Bangabandhu Cup Golf Open in Bangladesh just three weeks ago, last week’s breakthrough professional win saw Antcliff move up from 488 to 354 in the Official World Golf Rankings and will likely enjoy another significant jump this week.

China Golf Tour
Shenzhou Peninsula Open
The Dunes Golf Club, Wanning, Hainan
1             Maverick Antcliff              71-69-66-66—272            ￥126,000
T2           Kieran Muir                      72-67-67-70—276            ￥52,266
5             Bryden MacPherson        74-71-64-70—279            ￥28,000
T6           Jackson Dick                    65-69-71-75—280            ￥24,325
T9           Kevin Yuan                       71-68-69-74—282            ￥18,900
T9           Kade McBride                  70-71-71-70—282            ￥18,900
T17        Cory Crawford                   75-69-68-72—284            ￥10,850
T32        Hayden Beard                    71-77-74-67—289            ￥4,007
T43        Connor Edmonds              76-71-71-73—291            ￥2,730
T47        Jarrod Stirling                    74-74-72-72—292            ￥2,251
71           Fraser Wilkin                    73-74-78-75—300            ￥1,722
MC         Michael Pearce                 76-76—152

When Australian Maverick Antcliff turned professional three years ago, he would never have imagined that he might win his first title as a pro in China.

Yet, it became a reality this weekend after finishing rounds 1 and 3 in first place, round 2 in second place, while three birdies on the front-9 helped Antcliff to a final round score of 15-under for a 16-under tournament total to win the Bo Ao Open.

Winning by a staggering 6 shots, Antcliff took home a total prize purse of ¥126,000.

Lin Yung Lung from Tapei finished second, and Lin Kuan Po from Taipei, Matthew Negri from U.S. and Yuan Yechun from China tied for third place.

Lin Yung Lung was pleased with his result. “The wind is strong and I didn’t expect a better performance. It is really out of my expectation,” he said.

Using a more conservative strategy, Lin Yung Lung’s performance was stable over the past few days, but “I think I could be better,” he said.

The past week for Matthew Negri was like climbing stairs. He entered Bo Ao Open from the qualifying competition on Monday. He was in 22^nd place following the first round and had a clear run, finally giving his best performance in the final round.

Chinese player Xiao Bowen finished the second round in first place, totaling seven birdies in round 2 to become the most dangerous competitor to Antcliff. After two rounds of competition, 67 players entered the final and six Chinese players blazed their way to top-10.

Wind is always a powerful controller in Bo Ao, with some surviving and some failing against the weather. Antcliff proved to be strong minded, patient and insistent however with a bit of luck on his side, Xiao Bowen completed the tournament tied for sixth place, while Yuan Yechun made a late move to finish tied for third place.

As winner of Bo Ao Open Maverick Antcliff earned six World Golf Ranking points.

China Tour will move to Waning, Hainan Province next week for the Shenzhou Peninsula Open on April 25-28.

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

Queenslander Maverick Antcliff got his campaign off to a flying start after carding an opening 8-under 63 to lead by two shots in his debut appearance at the Bangabandhu Cup Golf Open on Wednesday.

The 25-year-old returned with a bogey-free card highlighted by eight birdies to stay ahead of local hope Mohammad Muaj, Chinese Taipei’s Wang Weilun, as well as Thailand’s Jazz Janewattananond, Settee Prakongvech and Sadom Kaewkanjana, at the Kurmitola Golf Club.

Antcliff, who enjoyed a tied-fourth place finish when he made his Asian Tour debut in China two years ago, was thrilled to put up a flawless display of golf and regain some confidence after missing the halfway cuts in his last two starts on the Asian Tour.

"I wanted to come and play here last year but couldn’t get my visa approved in time. It’s nice to be here finally," said Antcliff.

"I am really happy with the way I played today. I have been working hard on my game after my first few events back home.

"It’s nice to get off to a nice start. I am really happy with my birdie on the third hole. A bit of a niggly hole but it was nice to get a birdie there as I managed to get some momentum going from there. I just tried to stay in the present and keep it going really."

India’s Rashid Khan, who came off a top-10 finish on home soil last week, grabbed a share of seventh place alongside a host of players, including local hero Siddikur Rahman and Singapore’s Gregory Foo, after they signed for matching 66s at the US$350,000 event.

Malcolm Kokocinski of Sweden opened up his title defence with a flawless 67 to trail by four shots in tied-12th place at the National Open of Bangladesh, which is celebrating its fifth consecutive edition on the Asian Tour this week.

Muaj, 21, emerged as the highest-placed Bangladeshi after marking his personal-best round at the highly-rated Kurmitola Golf Club while Jazz renewed his love affair with the course by putting up a strong start to the tournament which he had won before in 2017

Queensland’s Maverick Antcliff will be hoping to continue his outstanding recent play when the final event of the 2017 China Tour tees off this week.

Antcliff has posted back to back top five finishes in his last two events and in his rookie season in China is a creditable fifth on the Order of Merit.

He is one of four Australians to tee up this week in the Asian Golf Championship, the last of 15 events on the 2017 schedule.

Bryden Macpherson, Marcus Both and Kevin Yuan are also in the field, Both making his first start in China since the inaugural 2014 season.

Macpherson still has a mathematical chance to win the Order of Merit after a year-long battle with Korea’s Rak Hyun Cho though will need to win, and rely on a poor finish from Cho, to achieve it.

The China Golf Association run Tour will cease to exist in 2018 when the PGA TOUR returns to the region to relaunch the PGA TOUR China.

The PGA TOUR China acts as a feeder Tour for the secondary Web.com circuit with the top money winner receiving full exemption and the next four earning conditional status in the US.

Launched in 2014, sponsorship issues saw the PGA TOUR pull its support of the Tour in 2017 though with those problems now resolved the circuit will once again offer an opportunity for the region’s golfers to access a pathway to the world’s richest Tour.