Golf

Paul Dunne withdraws in China as 14-year-old makes cut

Kuang Yang became second youngest player ever to make the cut on European Tour

Fourteen year-old Kuang Yang of China reacts after a putt during the second round of the China Open in Shenzhen. Photo: Getty Images

Fri May 3 2019 - 13:45

China’s Wu Ashun claimed the halfway lead in the Volvo China Open as teenage amateur Kuang Yang became the second-youngest player to make the cut in a European Tour event.

Wu added a second round of 65 to his opening 66 at Genzon Golf Club to finish 13 under par, two shots ahead of Finland’s Tapio Pulkkanen, who returned a 68 on Friday.

The halfway cut fell at two under par and Kuang made it right on the mark thanks to saving par from 12 feet on the 18th to card a second-consecutive 71.

At 14 years, six months and 12 days old, Kuang narrowly missed out on being the youngest player to make the cut in a European Tour event, Guan Tianlang playing all four rounds at the 2013 Masters despite being penalised for slow play at Augusta National.

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“I’m really happy, it’s amazing,” Kuang said.

“I was really nervous on 18 as it is a long putt for me but it went in and I’m so happy. There are not enough words to describe the feeling.

“Although my putting was better and my game was better than yesterday, the score was the same. I’m just so happy and want to thank my mum, my dad, my head teacher and members of my family for all their support.”

For Paul Dunne it was a disappointing week in which he was forced to withdraw after just three holes of his second round. The Greystones man was four over after an opening 76 and made two bogeys in his first three holes on Friday before withdrawing.

Wu, who is seeking a second victory in his national Open after lifting the title in 2015, carded eight birdies and a solitary bogey in his 65 and said: “It was a great day again today. I hit a lot of quality shots today and made a lot of birdies. I’m very happy.

“I hit a bad tee shot on five and I had a headache there again because I made a bogey there yesterday too. During the season break I took some time off to evaluate my game. I made some swing changes and it got better and better.”

Spain’s Jorge Campillo, who is seeking back-to-back victories after claiming his maiden European Tour title in Morocco last week, is three shots off the pace following a 69, with France’s Victor Dubuisson part of a six-strong group two strokes further back.

Collated second round scores & totals in the European Tour Volvo China Open, Genzon GC, Shenzhen, China (British unless stated, Irish in bold, par 72):

131 Ashun Wu (Chn) 66 65

133 Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin) 65 68

134 Jorge Campillo (Spa) 65 69

135 Benjamin Hebert (Fra) 67 68

136 Jason Scrivener (Aus) 70 66, Victor Dubuisson (Fra) 68 68, Sean Crocker (USA) 68 68, Erik Van Rooyen (Rsa) 68 68, Romain Langasque (Fra) 67 69, Min Woo Lee (Aus) 69 67

137 Matthieu Pavon (Fra) 68 69, David Lipsky (USA) 65 72, Mikko Korhonen (Fin) 68 69, Jordan Smith 67 70, Nacho Elvira (Spa) 68 69, Scott Jamieson 68 69, Jacques Kruyswijk (Rsa) 70 67

138 Scott Hend (Aus) 68 70, Mike Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 67 71, Cheng Jin (Chn) 69 69, Marcel Siem (Ger) 71 67, Stuart Manley 68 70

139 Oliver Wilson 68 71, Khalin Joshi (Ind) 69 70, Richard T Lee (Can) 70 69, Micah Lauren Shin (USA) 69 70, Sam Horsfield 70 69, Yuta Ikeda (Jpn) 68 71, Yechun Yuan (Chn) 68 71, Gavin Green (Mal) 67 72, Sam Brazel (Aus) 68 71

140 Adri Arnaus (Spa) 75 65, Richie Ramsay 69 71, Alexander Bjork (Swe) 70 70, Berry Henson (USA) 70 70, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 68 72, James Morrison 71 69, Haotong Li (Chn) 67 73, Jian-feng Ye (Chn) 72 68, Fabrizio Zanotti (Pry) 68 72, Bernd Wiesberger (Aut) 69 71, Louis De Jager (Rsa) 72 68

141 Zach Murray (Aus) 70 71, Adilson Da Silva (Bra) 72 69, Panuphol Pittayarat (Tha) 70 71, Guido Migliozzi (Spa) 73 68, Jack Singh Brar 68 73, Wen-chong Liang (Chn) 71 70, Ajeetesh Sandhu (Ind) 74 67, Paul Peterson (USA) 69 72, Aaron Rai 71 70, Jazz Janewattananond (Tha) 70 71, Julian Suri (USA) 69 72, Hong-fu Wu (Chn) 68 73

142 Malcolm Kokocinski (Swe) 69 73, S.S.P Chawrasia (Ind) 71 71, Enqi Liang (a) (Chn) 70 72, Kalle Samooja (Fin) 71 71, Haydn Porteous (Rsa) 69 73, Joachim B. Hansen (Den) 69 73, Miguel Tabuena (Phl) 67 75, Tirawat Kaewsiribandit (Tha) 68 74, Daniel Van Tonder (Rsa) 73 69, Romain Wattel (Fra) 70 72, Guxin Chen (a) (Chn) 70 72, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 72 70, John Catlin (USA) 66 76, Yang Kuang (a) (Chn) 71 71, Scott Vincent (Zim) 70 72

The following players missed the cut:

143 Sihwan Kim (Kor) 73 70, Bowen Xiao (Chn) 72 71, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 70 73, Ross Fisher 67 76, Grant Forrest 71 72, Viraj Madappa (Ind) 76 67, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 70 73, Renato Paratore (Ita) 74 69, Matthias Schwab (Aut) 70 73, Nicholas Fung (Mal) 72 71, Daniel Nisbet (Aus) 71 72, Jeunghun Wang (Kor) 70 73, Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa) 74 69, Jens Dantorp (Swe) 75 68

144 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 71 73, Kurt Kitayama (USA) 71 73, Zi-hao Chen (Chn) 71 73, Zi-Hong Zhang (Chn) 74 70, Andrea Pavan (Ita) 72 72, Kodai Ichihara (Jpn) 71 73, Pedro Figueiredo (Por) 74 70, Yusaku Miyazato (Jpn) 71 73, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 74 70, Hyun-woo Ryu (Kor) 69 75

145 Changping Chen (Chn) 73 72, Sebastian Soderberg (Swe) 71 74, Niklas Lemke (Swe) 71 74, Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind) 71 74, Wen-yi Huang (Chn) 71 74, Alexander Levy (Fra) 70 75

146 Hugo Leon (USA) 75 71, Yan-wei Liu (Chn) 74 72, Xue-wen Luo (Chn) 72 74, Yi-nong Yang (Chn) 75 71, Brett Rumford (Aus) 72 74, Daxing Jin (Chn) 66 80, Deyen Lawson (Aus) 73 73, Chieh-Po Lee (Tpe) 71 75, Zhihan She (Chn) 75 71, Sadom Kaewkanjana (Tha) 70 76, Dimitrios Papadatos (Aus) 75 71

147 Steven Brown 72 75, Andreas Gronkvist (Swe) 77 70, Chengyao Ma (Chn) 71 76, Zeming He (Chn) 75 72, Jin Zhang (Chn) 72 75, Zheng Ouyang (Chn) 73 74, Bernd Ritthammer (Ger) 70 77

148 Shih-Chang Chan (Tpe) 71 77, David Howell 74 74, Shaun Norris (Rsa) 71 77

149 Shiyu Fan (Chn) 73 76, David Gleeson (Aus) 73 76, Zheng kai Bai (Chn) 73 76, Hideto Tanihara (Jpn) 77 72, Ding-gen Chen (Chn) 74 75, Liam Johnston 75 74, Dean Burmester (Rsa) 70 79, Jake McLeod (Aus) 74 75, Chun Liu (Chn) 70 79

150 Jianshan Li (Chn) 75 75, Johannes Veerman (USA) 72 78

151 Jia Zhang (Chn) 73 78, Hai-Meng Chao (Chn) 73 78, Zhuang Zhu (Chn) 73 78, Poom Saksansin (Tha) 82 69, Hui-lin Zhang (Chn) 74 77

152 Dongyu Wang (Chn) 76 76, Shao-cai He (Chn) 74 78, Lian-Wei Zhang (Chn) 77 75, Dong Su (Chn) 74 78, Chao Song (Chn) 75 77

153 Shang Zhi (Chn) 73 80, Yilong Chen (Chn) 77 76, Kim Koivu (Fin) 76 77

155 Tian Yuan (Chn) 73 82, Tu-xuan Wu (Chn) 79 76

156 Zander Lombard (Rsa) 79 77

157 Bingwen Ma (a) (Chn) 78 79, Zehao Liu (Chn) 81 76, Lu sen Lien (Tpe) 77 80

162 Wei-yu Zhu (Chn) 79 83

WD Paul Dunne (Irl), Nino Bertasio (Ita), Thomas Detry (Bel), Daniel Gavins, Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn)