Thai rising star Chawalit takes early golf lead

By Bobby Allan Wilson

BANGKOK (JP): Thailand's rising star Chawalit Plaphol carded the lowest round of his professional career yesterday and set a new course record on his way to opening a two shot lead after the first round of the Omega Tour's US$200,000 Lexus International.

Chawalit carded nine magnificent birdies and a solitary bogey for an eight under par 64 over the 7,048-yard Bangpoo Country Club layout, and heads the leader board from Scotland's Kenny Walker who returned a six under 66.

"This is the best round I've had since turning professional a couple of years ago and certainly the best putting performance I've had all year," said 23-year-old Chawalit.

"The greens this week are in great condition -- they're very smooth and I had no problems reading the break. I also hit my irons well today."

Having toured the front nine three under par, Chawalit returned with a superb 31 that included birdie putts from 20 feet at the 12th, 15 feet at the 15th and 16th, and 14 feet at the 17th. He completed his record-breaking score with a superb wedge to within a foot of the pin for a birdie on the par five 18th.

"When I first started playing on the Omega Tour last year, I was too young and too inexperienced to be challenging for the lead," said Chawalit, currently 44th on the Omega Order of Merit.

"I was told that I would have to be patient as it would take at least a couple of years before I started posting good scores, and that prediction seems to be coming true. I've definitely become a better player as a result of competing regularly in the Omega Tour events."

After finishing a respectable 58th on the 1996 money list, Chawalit has shown a steady improvement in form this year and already has three top 10 finishes to his name. He finished joint fourth in both the Sabah Masters and Dubai Creek Open, and has only missed the cut three times in 14 starts this year.

Like Chawalit, Kenny Walker also had a superb day on the greens, particularly on the back nine where he needed only 11 putts in a four under 32.

"The key today was obviously my putting -- overall I had a fairly average round but my putting was exceptional, especially on the back nine," said 30-year-old Walker.

"There's very little rough out there and plenty of wide open spaces, so if you putt well then it's not too hard to make a really good score. The greens are so true this week that if you hit them good there's every chance they'll go in."

Myanmar's Kyi Hla Han joins the Indian duo Arjun Atwal and Vivek Bhandari in third place thanks to a five under par 67. The experienced Han had the best start to the day with consecutive birdies on the first four holes, and could even have had the best start of his career had he holed birdie putts from eight feet on both the fifth and sixth.

Selected results 64 - Chawalit Plaphol (Tha) 66 - Kenny Walker (Sco) 67 - Vivek Bhandari (Ind), Arjun Atwal (Ind), Kyi Hla Han (Myn) 68 - Greg Hanrahan (USA), Soe Kyaw Naing (Myn), Gavin Vearing

(Aus) 69 - Mike Cunning (USA), Wang Ter-Chang (Twn), M. Murugiah

(Sin), Robert Coles (Gbr), Toru Kinoshita (Jpn), Rangsan

Raksomchit (Tha), Simon Yates (Sco), Lee Petters (UAE), Lu

Wen-Teh (Twn), Lee Yong-hee (Kor) 70 - Kim Hong-sik (Kor), Park Nam-sin (Kor), Prayad Marksaeng

(Tha), Eric Meeks (USA), Christian Pena (USA), Moon Choong-

hwan (Kor), Dino Kwek (Sin), Poh Eng Wah (Sin), Takeshi

Ohyama (Jpn) 71 - Rodrigo Cuello (Phi), Yoshio Fumiyama (Jpn), Craig Kamps

(Rsa)