China’s teenage golf star Zhou Yanhan, Sungjae Im from Korea, and Australian Will Florimo shared the first-round lead today at the SJM Macao Open after shooting fine six-under-par 64s.
They lead by one shot at Macau Golf & Country Club from a large group of players, who returned 65s: Thailand’s Pavit Tangkamolprasert, the current leader of the Asian Tour Order of Merit and the winner of this event 10 years ago, Henrik Stenson from Sweden, Australian Jed Morgan, Chase Koepka from the United States, Jose Toledo from Guatemala, China’s Wu Ashun and Kelvin Si, impressively flying the flag for Macau.
Zhou is just 18 years old and making his debut on the Asian Tour.
He said: “It’s a brilliant experience playing on the Tour, I love the course and I love the people here. Just an amazing experience here.”
He made seven birdies and dropped one shot, on the sixth – after which he responded with three birdies in a row.
With the wind up and the course tight it was an impressive start to the week.
“This course is not that open, so you have to make sure your ball is safe and your ball is in play and just try to hole the putts.”
Zhou has been one of his country’s most talked about players over the past few seasons. In 2025 he triumphed seven times on the China Tour and secured the Order of Merit. He has also been playing well on the DP World Tour, most noticeably finishing joint second in the Danish Golf Championship in August and equal third in the Hainan Classic in February.
He also made his mark when he debuted on the Asian Development Tour in January when he tied for fifth in the PKNS Selangor Masters.
Im, who tied for seventh here last year, was bogey free today and birdied the par-five 18th late in the day to catch Zhou and Florimo – who were out in the morning flights.
“It’s a very windy day today,” said Im, a two-time winner on the PGA Tour who made his fourth appearance in the Presidents Cup last month.
“It played to the plan that we had before the round. Playing last year and then knowing the course was a big help.
“If the wind stays on this direction, the three days is gonna be same plan.”
Pavit won this event in 2016 for his first success on the Asian Tour.
“I have a lot of good memories from that year,” he said.
“Our King Rama IX passed away that year, on the Thursday. So, I just said to myself, from then on, win for him. So, yeah, it was emotional and this week has special meaning.”
Pavit won the Yeangder TPC last month, for his third victory on the Asian Tour, and presently leads the Merit list from Travis Smyth from Australia in second and Hong Kong’s Taichi Kho in third. The winner of the Merit list will earn a DP World Tour card for next year.
