France’s Victor Dubuisson is targeting a Ryder Cup return after another encouraging performance on his comeback from injury on day one of the Volvo China Open.
Dubuisson was three over par after three holes at Genzon Golf Club but birdied seven of the remaining 15 to card an opening 68 and finish three shots off the lead shared by Spain’s Jorge Campillo, American David Lipsky and Finland’s Tapio Pulkkanen.
Paul Dunne meanwhile struggled to an opening round of 76 - four over par - with six bogeys and just two birdies seeing his challenge effectively fall at the first hurdle.
29-year-old Frenchman Dubiisson is currently competing on a medical extension after playing just twice in 2018 due to a perforated ear drum, but has already recorded three top-20 finishes in 2019 as he looks to regain the form that brought him a Ryder Cup debut in 2014.
“I hope I can play at the next Ryder Cup, I hope I can play again,” said the world number 312, who won both of his foursomes matches alongside Graeme McDowell in Europe’s victory at Gleneagles.
“I hope I can play the WGCs and majors. I started very badly but came back well today so I’m happy.”
After needing 229 events to claim his first European Tour title, Campillo is in contention for back-to-back victories following his overdue win in the Hassan Trophy in Morocco on Sunday.
“I got a few nights sleep so it was good and I played all right,” Campillo said after an opening 65 which included four birdies and an eagle in a front nine of 30.
“The eagle on nine was the highlight, I made great putts on seven and eight back to back and then I hit a great hybrid on nine. I got an easy putt uphill and I made it.
“If I can keep playing like this and making the putts it will be a good sign. I’ll play to my best tomorrow and hopefully have a chance on the weekend.”
Home favourite and 2015 champion Wu Ashun is a shot off the lead alongside compatriot Jin Daxing and American John Catlin, with another Chinese star, world number 39 Li Haotong, one of eight players in a share of sixth place on five under.
Collated first round scores & totals in the European Tour Volvo China Open (Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):
65 Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin), Jorge Campillo (Spa), David Lipsky (USA)
66 Daxing Jin (Chn), Ashun Wu (Chn), John Catlin (USA)
67 Mike Lorenzo-Vera (Fra), Ross Fisher, Romain Langasque (Fra), Haotong Li (Chn), Miguel Tabuena (Phl), Jordan Smith, Benjamin Hebert (Fra), Gavin Green (Mal)
68 Oliver Wilson, Jack Singh Brar, Mikko Korhonen (Fin), Scott Jamieson, Scott Hend (Aus), Yechun Yuan (Chn), Nacho Elvira (Spa), Erik Van Rooyen (Rsa), Sean Crocker (USA), Matthieu Pavon (Fra), Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel), Stuart Manley, Victor Dubuisson (Fra), Tirawat Kaewsiribandit (Tha), Hong-fu Wu (Chn), Yuta Ikeda (Jpn), Fabrizio Zanotti (Pry), Sam Brazel (Aus)
69 Malcolm Kokocinski (Swe), Richie Ramsay, Cheng Jin (Chn), Haydn Porteous (Rsa), Khalin Joshi (Ind), Paul Peterson (USA), Joachim B. Hansen (Den), Julian Suri (USA), Micah Lauren Shin (USA), Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn), Bernd Wiesberger (Aut), Min Woo Lee (Aus), Hyun-woo Ryu (Kor)
70 Alexander Bjork (Swe), Berry Henson (USA), Richard T Lee (Can), Jacques Kruyswijk (Rsa), Thongchai Jaidee (Tha), Jazz Janewattananond (Tha), Jason Scrivener (Aus), Dean Burmester (Rsa), Chun Liu (Chn), Thomas Detry (Bel), Zach Murray (Aus), Enqi Liang (a) (Chn), Shiv Kapur (Ind), Panuphol Pittayarat (Tha), Matthias Schwab (Aut), Sam Horsfield, Romain Wattel (Fra), Jeunghun Wang (Kor), Sadom Kaewkanjana (Tha), Guxin Chen (a) (Chn), Bernd Ritthammer (Ger), Scott Vincent (Zim), Alexander Levy (Fra)
71 Shih-Chang Chan (Tpe), Shaun Norris (Rsa), Grant Forrest, Wen-chong Liang (Chn), Aaron Rai, Sebastian Soderberg (Swe), Chengyao Ma (Chn), Kodai Ichihara (Jpn), Yusaku Miyazato (Jpn), Yang Kuang (a) (Chn), Wen-yi Huang (Chn), Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind), Kurt Kitayama (USA), S.S.P Chawrasia (Ind), Zi-hao Chen (Chn), Kalle Samooja (Fin), Niklas Lemke (Swe), Marcel Siem (Ger), James Morrison, Chieh-Po Lee (Tpe), Daniel Nisbet (Aus), Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind)
72 Steven Brown, Bowen Xiao (Chn), Adilson Da Silva (Bra), Jin Zhang (Chn), Xue-wen Luo (Chn), Brett Rumford (Aus), Jian-feng Ye (Chn), Nicholas Fung (Mal), Andrea Pavan (Ita), Johannes Veerman (USA), Wade Ormsby (Aus), Louis De Jager (Rsa)
73 Sihwan Kim (Kor), Tian Yuan (Chn), Shang Zhi (Chn), David Gleeson (Aus), Shiyu Fan (Chn), Guido Migliozzi (Spa), Zheng kai Bai (Chn), Zheng Ouyang (Chn), Zhuang Zhu (Chn), Jia Zhang (Chn), Deyen Lawson (Aus), Daniel Van Tonder (Rsa), Changping Chen (Chn), Hai-Meng Chao (Chn)
74 Zi-Hong Zhang (Chn), Shao-cai He (Chn), David Howell, Yan-wei Liu (Chn), Ajeetesh Sandhu (Ind), Daniel Gavins, Ding-gen Chen (Chn), Renato Paratore (Ita), Hui-lin Zhang (Chn), Jake McLeod (Aus), Pedro Figueiredo (Por), Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa), Dong Su (Chn), Marcus Fraser (Aus)
75 Adri Arnaus (Spa), Hugo Leon (USA), Yi-nong Yang (Chn), Chao Song (Chn), Jianshan Li (Chn), Liam Johnston, Zeming He (Chn), Zhihan She (Chn), Jens Dantorp (Swe), Dimitrios Papadatos (Aus)
76 Dongyu Wang (Chn), Paul Dunne, Viraj Madappa (Ind), Kim Koivu (Fin)
77 Yilong Chen (Chn), Andreas Gronkvist (Swe), Lu sen Lien (Tpe), Lian-Wei Zhang (Chn), Hideto Tanihara (Jpn)
78 Bingwen Ma (a) (Chn)
79 Tu-xuan Wu (Chn), Zander Lombard (Rsa), Wei-yu Zhu (Chn)
81 Zehao Liu (Chn)
82 Poom Saksansin (Tha)
