Asian Tour number one Liang Wen-chong endured a baptism of fire in his British Open debut on Thursday.
The 29-year-old, the first mainland Chinese to qualify for the world’s oldest major, shot a frustrating seven-over-par 77 on a brutal day at Royal Birkdale where strong winds and lashing rain sent scores soaring.
Liang dropped seven bogeys and failed to register a single birdie as a cold putter, coupled with errant driving down the stretch, left him with a battle to make the halfway cut on Friday.
“Overall, I played some decent golf but the problem was my putting,” said Liang.
“On the first hole which I bogeyed, I missed a short par putt. It gave me problems all day and I’m heading to the practice green now to work on it.”
Liang, who won the Asian Tour’s Order of Merit last season with one win and eight top-10s, is presently two shots outside the cut mark and feels he has a fighting chance to qualify for the weekend rounds.
As the par-70 Royal Birkdale bared its teeth with strong winds that blew up to 30 mph and rain in the morning, many of the world’s best players suffered higher scores that Liang.
After further bogeys on the fourth and fifth holes to turn in three-over, Liang steadied the ship to hit seven straight pars, and missed birdie chances at the ninth, 10th and 12th holes. But a wayward drive into the sand trap on 13 was the start of a four-bogey run over his closing six holes.
“I still feel confident with my game. I hope my putting will be better tomorrow. I just didn’t have a good rhythm on the greens. I can see the lines but the rhythm is not there.
“The critical point of playing here is to put the ball on the fairway which I didn’t do in the last few holes,” he said.
Liang, the first Chinese to win the Asian Tour’s Order of Merit, was especially disappointed over the dropped shots on the par five 15th and 17th holes. “On 15, I wanted to hit the green in two and I put a bit more behind the drive and it ended up in the rough. But I still managed to get on the green in regulation, only to three putt there. I then hit a bad drive on 17 which cost me another bogey on the par five,” said Liang.
As the first mainland Chinese to tee up in the year’s third major, Liang said that he was nervous before the start of his round. “I watched the live broadcast this morning and the conditions were really bad. When I teed off in the afternoon, it calmed down a little bit. I hit the fairway on the first hole which calmed down my nerves and although I’ve signed for a 77, I thought I played well overall.”
