Jin putts prolific start in perspective
Sharpshooting amateur Jin Cheng lamented his indifferent form on the greens despite extending his lead after Wednesday’s second round of the PGA Tour Series-China qualifying tournament.
With three birdies and two bogeys, the 19-year-old carded a 1-under 71 to move to 5-under, three strokes ahead of second-place Fang Basiteng (72). Wang Dongyu, Jin’s good friend and compatriot, shot 71 to move into third place, at 1-under.
Huang Mingjie (72), Ying Yixin (70) and Yan Bin (74) were tied for fourth, at 2-over, at Beijing’s Wolong Lake Golf Club, where 15 full cards are available. The next 14 finishers and ties will earn conditional status for 2018.
Despite widening his lead, Jin, now in his second season playing for the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, said he was disappointed with his putting.
“The conditions were pretty similar to (Tuesday), but I just putted bad,” said Jin, who won the 2015 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship and played in the 2016 Masters.
“I hit the ball really well, but unfortunately I just couldn’t do anything on the greens.”
Although he remains on track to earn a full card, Jin played down talk of when he might turn pro.
“Honestly, I don’t know when I’m turning pro because after the NCAA Championships end, there are a lot of big summer tournaments like the US Amateur,” he said. “If I get my card here, then I can also play on the Tour. But there is also the Asian Games in October, so there are so many factors.”
Fang, 24, plans to play a full season on the Tour if he can claim his card this week. Twoover through 15 holes, he fired two birdies on his final three holes to finish even-par for the day and 2-under overall.
“The front nine was good, but my putting was not as good as yesterday,” said Fang. “From holes 11 to 13, I made three bogeys in a row and my short putts were not good. But on the last three holes I played better and made two birdies.”
After a one-year hiatus, PGA Tour Series-China will resume with a 14-tournament schedule that starts with the Chengdu Championship at Luxehills International Country Club (March 15-18) and the Chongqing Championship at Poly Golf Club (March 22-25).
Every tournament will offer 1.5 million yuan in prize money — a 25 percent increase over 2016. The top five on the Order of Merit will earn status on the 2019 Web.com Tour, the path to the PGA Tour.
The PGA Tour established PGA Tour Series-China in 2014 as its third international developmental tour, following in the footsteps of PGA Tour Latinoamerica and the Mackenzie Tour – PGA Tour Canada.
Since its inception, PGA Tour Series-China players have received Official World Golf Rankings points for top finishes at tournaments.