Making his Asian Development Tour debut, Liu Yung-hua overcame a nervy start to his final round to shoot a seven-under 65 and triumph in the BNI Ciputra Golfpreneur Tournament in Tangerang today.

Despite two bogeys after seven holes, the 27-year-old Chinese Taipei golfer recovered quickly and reeled off a string of birdies to overtake the overnight leader Vanchai Luangnitikul (69) of Thailand and Hong Kong’s Matthew Cheung (68).

Despite a close fought battle with the lead changing hole by hole, Liu (266) finished with a two shot advantage over Cheung and Vanchai (268) on Damai Indah Golf’s BSD course outside the Indonesian capital Jakarta.

Vanchai needed to chip in for eagle on the last hole to force Liu to make a birdie, his shot almost went in but ultimately went long and he could only par out. Liu made birdie to secure the win.

Ekpharit Wu (271) of Thailand finished in solo fourth place, followed by his compatriot Kammalas Namuangruk (273).

Thailand’s Tirawat Kaewsribandit (275) shared sixth spot in the US$140,000 ADT event with Minhyeok Yang of Korea and defending champion Yuvraj Singh Sandhu of India.

Runchanapong Youprayong of Thailand posted the low score of the day with his eight-under 64 netting him a share of ninth spot on 276, alongside Indonesia’s Jonathan Wijono, Malaysia’s Ervin Chang, and Thai compatriots Varanyu Rattanaphiboonkij and Chanat Sakulpolpaisan.

Runchanapong made a few adjustments to his game after a disappointing start to the tournament, finally getting to grips with the course after three opening scores in the 70s.

“I went with a little bit something new today,” said Runchanapong after his round. “I was originally hitting my irons kind of low with these firm greens so my shots weren’t holding on. I decided to hit it a little higher today, which meant I was hitting it close and making a lot of putts.

“For the first couple of rounds the wind was stronger,” he said, “but I felt some some of the pins were more attackable today so there will be a couple more low scores.”

Indonesian amateur Jonathan Hartono battled hard to maintain momentum in the final round, posting a two-under 70 to share 14th spot on 277 with India’s Khalin Joshi who finished the day with even par.

Japan’s Naoki Sekito finished strongly with a 67 to end the day tied for 16th on 278 with Singapore’s james Leow and the English pair of Matt Killen and Ben Jones.

Panuaphol Pittayarat and Witchayapat Sinsrang of Thailand, Australia’s Douglas Klin and Filip Lundell of Sweden rounded out the top 20 tied on 279 strokes after the four round tournament.

The Asian Development Tour heads to Vietnam next week for its seventh tournament of 2024, the BRG Open Golf Championship at the Legend Da Nang Golf resort, a three round event on the Nicklaus course.

Main picture: Liu Yung-hua of Chinese Taipei pictured with the winner’s trophy at the BNI Ciputra Golfpreneur Tournament. The US$140,000 Asian Development Tour event is being held from August 21-24 at the Damai Indah Golf BSD course in Tangerang, Indonesia. Picture courtesy of Damai Indah Golf.