ANDREA PAVAN of Italy made four birdies on his last six holes to take a share of the lead after the first round of the Hong Kong Open with a 6-under 64 Thursday.

    Pavan was tied with Lu Wei-chih of Chinese Taiwan, a stroke ahead of a trio that included Justin Rose of England. Rose made four birdies on the back nine in a bogey-free round and was tied with Taiwanese player Pan Cheng-tseung and Jeev Milka Singh of India.

    Graeme McDowell was in a group of six players another shot back at the joint European Tour and Asian Tour event.

    Ian Poulter showed wasn’t affected by his late arrival to Hong Kong, shooting a composed 67. Poulter landed late Wednesday night after making last-minute plans to play in the tournament. Poulter’s ranking dipped nine places to 51 at the start of the week, making him ineligible to play in the WGC-HSBC Champions and leaving him one short of the minimum number of 13 European Tour events to retain his membership for next season.  (SD-Agencies)