Sampson Produces Early Show of Strength

Parker, Colorado, United States: A stalwart of the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC) Bonallack Trophy-winning team in Spain a fortnight ago, China’s Sampson Zheng is this week making another splash in a USGA championship.

The rising senior at the University of California-Berkeley, who captured the US Amateur Four-Ball title in late May with Cal team-mate and fellow senior Aaron Du, opened stroke play of the 123rd US Amateur Championship with a six-under-par 66 at Colorado Golf Club (CGC), the stroke play co-host to Cherry Hills Country Club.

Zheng missed an eight-foot birdie putt on the final hole at CGC that would have tied the competitive course record, which is owned by David Frost, who shot seven-under 65 in the third round of the 2010 Senior PGA Championship.

The 22-year-old Zheng played a bogey-free round with three birdies on each side of the CGC layout, a Bill Coore/Ben Crenshaw design, about 17 miles away from Cherry Hills.

The William Flynn-designed Cherry Hills, in suburban Denver, is hosting its third US Amateur, to go along with three US Opens among 10 USGA championships overall.

“The course has gotten firmer and firmer the past few days,” said Zheng, who is 49th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) and turned heads at the US Amateur Four-Ball by making eight consecutive birdies on his own ball during stroke play.

“The fairways are fairly generous, but when you miss them, you have only a couple yards of rough and then fescue. I had a few drivers run through the fairway, but other than that I did pretty well keeping it in play.”

For three other members of the APGC Bonallack Trophy team that defeated the European Golf Association 17-15 in the match play event at La Manga, it was a more difficult day.

New Zealand’s Joshua Bai, runner-up in last month’s US Junior Boys Championship, is tied 75th after a one-over 73 at CGC, while Japan’s Yuta Sugiura is in a share of 124th spot following a 75 at CGC which included a triple-bogey eight at the long 16th.

Australian Harrison Crowe, the reigning Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship winner, signed for six-over 77 at Cherry Hills with six bogeys and one double-bogey on his card. He is languishing in equal 208th position.

But it was a good day for Zheng’s compatriots with three other Chinese breaking par to put themselves in good shape to progress to the match play phase with the cut for the leading 64 players being made after Tuesday’s second round.

Andi Xu is tied seventh at three-under; Chang Rui is equal 15th on two-under and Ding Wenyi shares 31st place on one-under following a 70 at Cherry Hills where he bogeyed the final hole.

Of the other Asia-Pacific players in the starting line-up, Australian Jeffrey Guan is equal 45th on even-par, with New Zealand’s Kazuma Kobori joint 75th on one-over. Kobori won the Western Amateur a week ago to clinch the top spot in the summer-long Elite Amateur Series.

Among those on two-over in joint 100th place are Thai Ratchanon ‘TK’ Chantananuwat, Japan’s Leo Oyo, Korean Lee Byung-ho and Hong Kong China’s Alexander Yang.

The 312 players will switch courses on Tuesday as the field is narrowed to 64 players for match play. If a play-off is required to complete the bracket, it will be contested on Wednesday at 7:30 am local time.

Six rounds of match play begin on Wednesday and continue through to the 36-hole final on Sunday, all at Cherry Hills.