Golf

Yuan Hao kickstarted his bid for a maiden China Tour victory on Thursday after dislodging amateur Zhang Xinjun from the top of the Luxehills Golf Championship leaderboard with an opening round six-under-par 66.

Yuan's only blemish on his card came at his penultimate hole, but he recovered to pick up a seventh birdie of the round at the last to open up a one-stroke advantage over Zhang Xinjun.

Zhang Xinjun had earlier leapt to the top of the leaderboard with an opening round five-under 67, which included just two bogeys.

And with Order of Merit leader Zhang Lianwei and Li Chao, who have won 14 of the 23 events held since the circuit started in 2005, playing in this week's European Masters, Yuan is in prime position to take advantage.

The Chengdu-based 21-year-old is part of a seven-strong China team competing at Luxehills as part of their preparation for next month's World Amateur Team Championships in Australia.

"After watching the Olympics, playing golf with a flag on my chest has given me extra power. I'm so confident and proud because of this," he said.

"I was concentrating so hard on every single shot because I saw that kind of focus in the Chinese athletes at the Olympics."

Chinese Taipei's Tsai Chi-huang and amateur Benny Ye Jianfeng sit in a tie for third at four under, with Chen Dinggen, Liu Xin, Wu Hongfu and Zhou Xunshu a further shot off the pace.

Liao Guiming, second on the Order of Merit, carded a level-par opening round alongside Huang Mingjie.

The event was originally scheduled for May, but was postponed following the devastating earthquake in the Sichuan region.