Incheon, South Korea: Defending champion An Byeong-Hun of South Korea on Thursday grabbed the first-round lead with a six-under-par 65 at the Asia Tour Korea Open.
A stroke behind were his three compatriots – one-time Asian Tour winner Lee Sung, Kim Gi-Whan and Kim Tae-Woo.
Qualifying school graduate Nicolas Paez of the United States, Thailand’s Thitiphun Chuayprakong and Australia’s Michael Wright led the international charge by returning with a 67 to share fifth place with Koreans Yoon Jung-Ho and Kim Jun-Sung at the Bears Best Cheongna Golf Club.
An, the highest ranked player this week and number 38 in the world, overcame two early bogey scares on the 10th and 11th holes before recovering well with eight birdies to stay ahead of the chasing pack.
“It was a horrible start as I didn’t hit it well”, An said.
“This is the first round, first hole of the tournament and I always worry about it the day before, like whether I’m going to shoot a 80 today. But once I got that out of my mind, it was going to be okay”.
Leading scores (par 71): 65 - An Byeong-Hun; 66 - Lee Sung, Kim Gi-Whan, Kim Tae-Woo; 67 - Yoon Jung-Ho, Kim Jun-Sung, Michael Wright (AUS), Nicolas Paez (USA), Thitiphun Chuayprakong (THA).
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