Kurt Kitayama takes halfway lead at Changsha

Making his PGA Tour Series-China debut, USA's Kurt Kitayama carded a tournament low 7-under 65 to move to 10-under and open up a three-stroke lead at the halfway stage of the 1.5 million yuan ($236,000) Changsha Championship, the third event of the season.

China's Jin Daxing shot 67 at Hunan Dragon Lake International Golf Club to lie second at 7-under, one ahead of American Charlie Saxon (68), a two-time winner in 2016, and China’s Wu Hongfu (70), fresh from a tie for 37th in the European Tour's Volvo China Open last week.

Chinese amateur Bi Liu, joint winner of the Monday qualifier, shot 71 to share fifth with Canada's Beonyeong Lee (71), American Ryann Ree (71) and Chinese Taipei’s Chiehpo "Max" Lee (70), who shared third at the Chongqing Championship in March.

Leading after an opening 66, USA's Jeffrey Kang, who won the season opening Chengdu Championship, slipped to ninth at 4-under after a 74, while Chongqing Championship winner Yi Cao (73-77) of China missed the cut by two. The cutline was at 4-over and 62 players will play at the weekend.

Kitayama is in his first season on the tour after securing a full card at Q-School as he tries to find a way back to the Web.com Tour, where he had full status last year, having played nine events in 2016.

The 25-year-old sank some long putts on his way to firing eight birdies including three in a row from No 7, dropping his only shot of the day on the par-3 16th.

"I tried to just hit as many greens as possible and today I just made a few longer putts over 20 feet so I made a couple of those," said Kitayama. "That was the main difference today – I just made way more putts."

Jin, who teed off on 10, also racked up eight birdies but was let down by a triple bogey on No 3, a tricky 359-yard par-4.

"It took time to forget the triple bogey. I was thinking about it for the next two or three holes so I'm happy I did well after that," said Jin, who managed birdies at No 4 and No 7.

Like Kitayama, Saxon played on the Web.com Tour last year, having finished second on the 2016 PGA Tour Series-China Order of Merit. The American teed off on 10 and reached 6-under for the day before finishing with back-to-back bogeys.

"I was just a little sharper all-around with my ball striking. I didn't miss a green today. It makes things pretty easy when you're hitting it on the greens," said Saxon, who’s keen to get his first tour win of the year.

"I know that my game is in good shape. I just need to keep knocking on the door and fortunately I've got myself in a good position through 36 holes, and hopefully there will be 36 more good ones."

The top five players on this year's Order of Merit will earn status on the 2019 Web.com Tour.