Korea’s Jiho Yang [main picture] capitalised on more palatable afternoon conditions to take the first-round lead in the KOLON Korea Open today, shooting a fine six-under-par 65.

He leads from compatriot Yujun Jung, alone in second following a 66, at Woo Jeong Hills Country Club – in the seventh leg of the season on the Asian Tour.

Koreans Sangmoon Bae – winner of this event in 2008 and 2009 – Chanmin Jung, Jinho Choi and Soomin Lee, Sweden’s Charlie Lindh and American Austen Truslow are tied for third after 68s.

They all finished late in the day while the players in morning session had to battle through persistent rain and colder conditions.

Yang is a two-time winner on the Korean PGA Tour, in 2022 and 2023, but he will no doubt rate today’s round as one of his finest – coming in his national open, featuring a stellar field.

Charlie Lindh. 

“It rained earlier this morning,” said the 37-year-old, who has been a professional since 2007.

“I was hoping the rain would stop, and thankfully it did by the time I teed off. That made me feel a lot lighter mentally.”

He started on the back nine and made bogey on his first two before he boarded the birdie train with three in a row from the 13^th and another on 18. He dropped his third and final shot of the day on the first before the birdies returned with five in his last six, including on the last two.

He explained: “I got a bit flustered after making two bogeys, but I told myself to stay calm. Then a long putt dropped, and from that moment on I felt much more comfortable. My shots and my mindset both settled down, and I think that helped me finish the round well. My wife is with me again this week, just like always. I get a lot of support from her.

“I’m trying to approach things with the same mindset as last season. I don’t want to rush, and I try not to get angry. As I get older year by year, I’m making a bigger effort to control my emotions and stay mentally composed.”

Jung is another surprise frontrunner, throwing the form back out of the window. He has yet to find his feet in the professional with just two top 10s in nearly four years on the Korean PGA Tour. However, he’ll be hoping today’s performance in just his fourth start on the Asian Tour will mark a turning point.

He also started on the back nine and made the turn in one under before a fine bogey free second nine thrust him into the spotlight. He made birdies on two, three, five plus eight and played a brilliant second shot from the trees on the par four ninth to rescue his par.

He said: “I played a practice round on Monday and then played in the Pro-Am on Tuesday. Yesterday, it rained a lot, so I couldn’t practice for very long. But my main focus was to avoid missing greens as much as possible and just keep the ball in play not hitting any OBs.”

Lindh has been showing signs this year of a player coming into form, as was the case today.

Kieran Vincent.

“We obviously got the right side of the draw,” said the Swede, who tied for sixth in the New Zealand Open earlier in the year.

“It made it a lot easier. I saw guys were struggling out there early this morning. We just had perfect weather, like playing indoors, really. Played solid, just solid all over nothing really stood out.

“I feel like my game is definitely much better now than what it was last year. Feel more comfortable. My putting has always been good. The tee to green game has been much better this year, or I mean, I’ve been working on the swing for the last three years. I made a grip change, it’s complicated.”

Zimbabwe’s Kieran Vincent is in a large group of players who shot 69, although he was of the few to do so in the morning.

“I think obviously the rain and the weather always creates a little bit of interesting factors, but at the end of the day it doesn’t really change a whole lot, you know,” said Vincent.

“You still got to hit a good shot, you still got to pick a target and trying to hit it as best as you can, and I think today what worked well was I just gave myself a bit of freedom to make some errors. There were going to be errors made, and instead of making big errors by compounding it, I was just okay with what happened, and just kind of moved on from there.”

He’ll be hoping for a good result this week ahead of his brother Scott’s arrival next week for LIV Golf Korea. Scott is enjoying his second stint on the LIV Golf League by virtue of winning The International Series Rankings last year, while Kieran played for Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII team in 2024.

Bubba Watson.

South African Ian Snyman, the most recent winner on the Asian Tour at the Taiwan Glass Taifong Open two weeks ago, carded a 72 along with American Bubba Watson, one of the star attractions this week. Abraham Ancer from Mexico was one shot worse. Both he and Watson will be staying on to compete in LIV Golf Korea.

Korean Minkyu Kim, the winner here in 2022 and 2024, carded a 74 and will need to bounce back tomorrow to have any chance of completing the hattrick.