Australia has made a doubly solid start at the Asia Pacific Golf Confederation’s junior championship in Taiwan.
Playing in mixed fourball format on day one, the combination of Queenslander Becky Kay and Victorian Cameron John mixed superbly to shoot a four-under-par 68 at a sodden Sunrise Golf and Country Club.
The 16-year-olds went bogey-free throughout a round highlighted by four front-nine birdies on their way to fifth after the first of three tournament days.
And barring some near misses with birdie chances in the closing holes, they could have been even closer to the lead, shared by the two Korean teams at seven under. Teams from Japan and Indonesia share third at five under.
The other Australian team, Queenslander Louis Dobbelaar and Stefanie Hall, of New South Wales, are also prominent after an early hiccup.
The pair had been two over through nine holes as many in the field battled torrential rain after play had been suspended for more than an hour by fog and rain in the aftermath of a weekend typhoon.
But when the sun came out on the back nine, Dobbelaar and Hall poured in four birdies of their own to charge up to two under and a tie for 12th.
Dobbelaar, 13, lit up from the 13th through the 15th holes with three consecutive birdies, then Hall, 15, who’d been steady throughout the round, added her own birdie on the 17th as the youngsters made their move.
Other competing countries include host Chinese Taipei, Guam, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Phillipines, Qatar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.