Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship: Day 2 Report

Blake Windred of Australia leads the Asia Pacific Amateur Championship by one shot through 36 holes at Sheshan Golf Club in Shanghai.

Australia’s Blake Windred maintained his lead through two rounds of the 11th Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship at Sheshan GC but his advantage has been cut to just one over Jun Min Lee of South Korea and Japan’s Ren Yonezawa.

Windred followed his superb opening round of 63 with a solid 71. He battled well and finished with two birdies to reach 10-under-par.

On his 18th hole, the difficult 9th at Sheshan GC, Windred found sand from the tee, but he took on the second shot over water and fired a six-iron to within 20 feet of the cup.

The 21-year-old rolled home the putt to card 71.

“That was an important finish,” he said.“I’m pleased with the way I bounced back today. I didn’t hit the ball as well as yesterday but I’m happy with the position I’m in, having ground it out. I had a target of shooting five-under every day, so I’m right there with that at 10-under. I need to have a good finish to the weekend.”

Both Jun Min Lee of Korea and Ren Yonezawa of Japan followed Thursday 68s with fine rounds of 67 on Friday.

Lee played an error-free round in halves of 34 and 33.

Yonezawa finished strongly with two birdies in his last three holes to go into Saturday on nine-under, one behind Windred.

“My long game was really good today,” Yonezawa said. “I’m enjoying it and we will see what the weekend brings.

Kaiwen Liu is the best placed home player on six-under-par. He is one clear of five players tied for fifth.

James Kwang Aik Leow of Singapore carded an excellent 68 to move to five-under for the week. The 22-year-old who attends Arizona State made eight birdies on the day.

Leow is tied on five-under with his countryman Hiroshi Tai plus Ervin Chang of Malaysia, Yung-Hua Liu of Chinese Taipei and Yuxin Lin of China.

Defending champion Takumi Kanaya of Japan carded a second round 69 and is three-under for the tournament.

As the tournament heads into the weekend, the pressure will continue to build as players at the top of the leaderboard contemplate the incredible prizes on offer this week.

Organised by the Asia Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC) in conjunction with The R&A and The Masters Tournament, the winner of this tournament receives: An invitation to compete in the 2020 Masters Tournament plus direct entry into The 149th Open Championship at Royal St George’s in 2020. He will also receive an exemption into The Amateur Championship to be played at Royal Birkdale.

The runner(s)-up receive a place in The Open Qualifying Series with the opportunity to qualify for Royal St George’s.

Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship – Round 2 Scores

1 Blake Windred (Aus) -10 T2 Jun Min Lee (Kor) -9 T2 Ren Yonezawa (Jap) -9 4 Kaiwen Liu (Chn) -6 T5 James Leow (Sin) -5 T5 Hiroshi Tai (Sin) -5 T5 Ervin Chang (Mal) -5 T5 Yung-Hua Liu (The) -5 T5 Yuxin Lin (Can) -5

Leading 60 players and ties after round two made the cut (nine-over.)