Kosuke outshines Jazz

All eyes were on defending champion Jazz Janewattananond at the SMBC Singapore Open yesterday, but it was a lesser-known fellow Thai who grabbed pole position during the weather-interrupted first round.

Kosuke Hamamoto was the surprise leader after opening with an impressive six-under 65 in the US$1 million (S$1.35 million) event at the Sentosa Golf Club.

The 20-year-old, born in Chiang Mai to a Japanese father and Thai mother, shot six birdies at the 7,398-yard Serapong Course.

Kosuke, who is in his second year as a professional and is making his Singapore Open pro debut, was the 2017 SEA Games gold medallist.

He said the key to his excellent day's work was playing without pressure.

"To be honest I'm just happy to be able to play here in this prestigious event," he said. "I just came in this week with the attitude of... (being) grateful and thankful for everything that's been happening.

"Today I just had a lot of fun and did not really put a lot of pressure on myself."

Another Thai, Gunn Charoenkul, shared second place with American Matt Kuchar, Richard T. Lee of Canada and Japan's Rikuya Hoshino on 66.

It was a mixed start for Kuchar, the 2016 Rio Olympics bronze medallist. He was the only man in the top 14 to score an eagle - on the par-five seventh hole - and also the only one to have a double bogey, as he did on the par-four 13th.

But the world No. 24 was all smiles later and said: "It was a good day out there, I was awfully pleased with my performance.

"I got off to a good start and was able to keep it going. I had a double-bogey on the 13th but bounced back with a couple of birdies so, all in all, it was a good day."

ROUND 1 (weather-disrupted, 46 of 156 men yet to finish)

65 Kosuke Hamamoto (Tha) 66 Richard Lee (Can), Gunn Charoenkul (Tha), Rikuya Hoshino (Jpn), Matt Kuchar (USA) 67 Kim Joo-hyung (Kor), Jazz Janewattananond (Tha), Hur In-hoi (Kor) 68 Henrik Stenson (Swe), Justin Rose (Eng) 69 Yuta Ikeda (Jpn), Ryo Ishikawa (Jpn) 70 a-James Leow (Sgp), Liang Wenchong (Chn) 71 Koh Deng Shan (Sgp) 72 Jesse Yap (Sgp)

Jazz, who shot 67 to share third place with South Koreans Kim Joo-hyung and Hur In-hoi, said: "The score is not bad although I left a bit out there. It's still the first round, so there's no need to get too serious about this now. It's still a good score so I'm pretty happy with it."

Six players are three shots adrift on 68, including world No. 9 Justin Rose and 26th-ranked Swedish veteran Henrik Stenson.

Englishman Rose, the Olympic champion, said: "My game was not exactly great (and) I did not hit many good shots today but I think I managed my game very well.

"I was never in a lot of trouble so even though I was not playing well, I always managed to be in decent positions - managing the bad shots, I guess... I think three-under is a good start."

An afternoon weather delay of around 75 minutes meant that 46 of the 156-man field were not able to complete their round, with play suspended at 7.10pm. They will resume at 7.40am today, before the second round begins at 8am.