29 April 2005	Friday	19 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1426

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SHANGHAI, April 28: World number three Ernie Els fired a smooth five-under-par 67 in sweltering heat to share the first round lead at the $1.5 million Asian Open on Thursday.

Frenchman Jean Van de Velde, who is attempting his latest comeback from serious knee injuries, was one of six other players tied with Els in Shanghai.

Van de Velde’s countryman Raphael Jacquelin, New Zealand’s Eddie Lee, Australian Larry Austin and British pair Peter Lawrie and Simon Wakefield were also five under.

The seven-way tie equals the European Tour record for the number of players sharing the lead after a first round.

Els has already won in Dubai and Qatar this year and he finished tied for sixth at last week’s China Open Classic in Beijing.

The South African began with back-to-back birdies and had five in total on the front nine as temperatures reached almost 40 degrees in Shanghai.

His only bogey came at the par-four seventh but Els got up and down from a greenside bunker at the 13th for his only birdie of the back nine.

Leading first round scores:

67 — Larry Austin (Australia), Ernie Els (South Africa), Raphael Jacquelin (France), Peter Lawrie, Eddie Lee (New Zealand), Jean Van de Velde (France), Simon Wakefield (Britain).

69 — Soren Hansen (Denmark), Carlos Rodiles (Spain), Jeev Milkha Singh (India), Richard Sterne (South Africa).

70 — Marcus Both (Australia), Christian Cevaer (France), Luke Donald (Britain), Simon Dyson (Britain), Kim Felton (Australia), Mark Foster (Britain), Chris Hanell, Anders Hansen (Denmark), Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spain), James Kingston (South Africa), Sung-Man Lee (South Korea), Wen-Chong Liang (China), Jean-Francois Lucquin (France), Peter O’Malley (Australia), David Park (Britain), Jyoti Randhawa (India), Patrik Sjoeland (Sweden), Lian-Wei Zhang (China).

71 — Thomas Bjorn (Denmark), David Bransdon (Australia), Nick Dougherty (Britain), Pelle Edberg (Sweden), Peter Fowler (Australia), Brad Kennedy (Australia), Jason Knutzon (United States), Stuart Little (Britain), Prom Meesawat, Ted Oh (South Korea), Charl Schwartzel (South Africa), Anthony Wall (Britain), Ter-Chang Wang (Taiwan), Oliver Wilson (Britain).

72 — Ross Bain (Britain), Scott Barr (Australia), Joon Chung (South Korea), Francois Delamontagne (France), Nick Faldo (Britain), Kenneth Ferrie (Britain), Alastair Forsyth (Britain), Adam Groom (Australia), Gregory Hanrahan (United States), Peter Hedblom (Sweden), Anthony Kang (South Korea), Wen-Tang Lin (Taiwan), Edward Loar (United States), Jarrod Lyle (Australia), Paul Marantz (Australia), Richard Moir (Australia), Wade Ormsby (Australia), Thammanoon Srirot (Thailand), Scott Strange (Australia), Sven Struever (Germany), Miles Tunnicliff (Britain).

73 — Hendrik Buhrmann (South Africa), Michael Campbell (New Zealand), Paul Casey (Britain), K.J. Choi (South Korea), Jason Dawes (Australia), Scott Drummond (Britain), Peter Hanson (Sweden), James Heath (Britain), Keith Horne (South Africa), Yong-Huan Huang (China), Sushi Ishigaki (Japan), Thongchai Jaidee (Thailand), Jose Manuel Lara (Spain), Santiago Luna (Spain), Mardan Mamat (Singapore), Joong Kyung Mo (South Korea), Colin Montgomerie (Britain), Gary Rusnak (United States), Bryan Saltus (United States), Jarmo Sandelin (Sweden).

74 — Adam Blyth (Australia), Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spain), Marcus Fraser (Australia), Adam Fraser (Australia), Philip Golding (Britain), Kyi Hla Han (Myanmar), Amandeep Johl (India), Barry Lane (Britain), Sam Little (Britain), Qiang Liu (China), Stuart Manley (Britain), Damien McGrane (Ireland), Edward Michaels (United States), Terry Pilkadaris (Australia), Terry Price (Australia), Costantino Rocca (Italy), Gary Simpson (Australia), Chris Williams (Britain), Thaworn Wiratchant (Thailand).

75 — Danny Chia (Malaysia), Rahil Gangjee (India), Gaurav Ghei (India), Richard Lee (New Zealand), Prayad Marksaeng (Thailand), Paul McGinley (Ireland), Eiji Mizoguchi (Japan), Marten Olander (Sweden), Sam Osborne (Britain), Unho Park (Australia), Christian Reimbold (Germany), Boonchu Ruangkit (Thailand), Peter Senior (Australia), Niki Zitny (Austria).

76 — Alex Cejka (Germany), Simon Hurd (Britain), Craig Kamps (South Africa), Wen-Ko Lin (Taiwan), Wen Teh Lu (Taiwan), Ben Mason (Britain), Gerry Norquist (United States), Alistair Presnell (Australia), Zeng Fa Qi (China), Johan Skoeld (Sweden), Dong Su (China), Wen-Gen Zheng (China).

77 — Yuan-Chi Chen (Taiwan), Chao Li (China), Steven O’Hara (Britain), Pablo Del Olmo (Mexico), Andrew Pitts (United States), Chawalit Plaphol (Thailand).

78 — Tai Fu (China), Rick Gibson (Canada), Ming Jie Huang (China), Jarrod Moseley (Australia), Brett Rumford (Australia), Wei-Huang Wu (China).

79 — Peter Baker (Britain), Clay Devers (United States), Harmeet Kahlon (India), Malcolm MacKenzie (Britain), Angelo Que (Philippines), Nobuhito Sato (Japan), Simon Yates (Britain).

80 — Li Kang (China), Hui-Qiang Wang (China).

81 — Mike Cunning (United States), Tobias Dier (Germany), Jian-Cheng Xiao (China).

83 — Xiao-Xuan Xing (China).—Reuters