Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, January 10: Japan’s Masao Nakajima and Seo Jeong-min from Korea took the first round lead in the Final Stage of the OneAsia Qualifying School.
They both carded four-under-par 67s at Sutera Harbour Golf & Country Club to put themselves in prime position to secure one of the 20 plus OneAsia cards.
Koreans Yoo Sung-yong, Hur In-hoi, and Song Young-han came in with 68s while their countryman Kim Gi-whan and Park Hyo-won and Brad Shilton from New Zealand shot 69.
A total of 20 players finished under par in what is a four round tournament.
With at least 14 tournaments on OneAsia this season offering an overall purse of nearly US$16 million the stakes are high for the entrants.
Many will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of last year’s Qualifying School winner Han Chang-won.
The Korean teenager claimed the Qualifying School by six strokes and went on to finish seventh on the money list with earnings of US$135,078.
The OneAsia season starts with the US$1 million Indonesia Open, to be played from March 15 to 18.
