Fasth and Stadler lead in Shanghai

Sweden's Niclas Fasth shot a stunning first round 64 to equal the course record at the €3.4million  HSBC Champions event today before American Kevin Stadler later matched him to share a three-shot lead.

A strong finish for a round of 67 put Vijay Singh alone in third while world number two Phil Mickelson, Argentina's US Open champion Angel Cabrera, Ireland's British Open champion Padraig Harrington and five others shared fourth after carding 68s.
   
An opening birdie and an eagle three secured with a 25-foot putt from the back fringe set the 35-year-old Fasth on his way to matching the eight-under-par rounds carded by Tiger Woods, Henrik Stenson and Michael Campbell last year.
   
"I holed two good putts, it's not every day you're three under after two holes. And then I really just kept hitting great shots and playing well," world number 20 Fasth, who had another six birdies and dropped just one shot, told reporters.
   
Stadler picked up six birdies in an otherwise blemish-free front nine and grabbed three more after a bogey at the 11th - a fine round for a player who only made sure of saving his US Tour card last week.
   
"On the front nine everything was firing," said the 27-year-old son of 1982 Masters champion Craig. "It was great to play a worry-free tournament, I haven't had many of those in the last month or two."
   
Fijian Singh grabbed four birdies over the last six holes to put himself into contention and said that despite playing most of his golf in the United States, he wanted to do his part for his continent.
   
"I am Asian," he said. "We need a lot more events like this in Asia where you can have Asian players feeling more and more comfortable playing with a field like this. I'd like to pull it off and give the Asian world a little boost."
   
Mickelson started with three birdies in the first four holes but stalled with a bogey at the fifth and picked up just one more shot to finish level with the two major winners as well as England's Ross Fisher and Paul Casey, South Africans Richard Sterne and Andrew McLardy, and Korean KJ Choi.
   
"I hit some good shots, didn't quite make as many birdies, but played a good, solid round for a good start," Mickelson said.
   
"There's a very low score out there. But, it's still difficult to do and I was very pleased with my round."
   
Liang Wenchong finished on three-under to keep alive his hopes of becoming the first local winner of the Champions and South Korea's Yang Yong-eun started his title defence with a steady one-under 71.
   
Asia's richest tournament is co-sanctioned by the Asian, European, Australasian and Sunshine Tours as well as the China Golf Association.

Collated first round scores in the European Tour HSBC Champions, Sheshan International GC, Shanghai, China

(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):

64Kevin Stadler (USA), Niclas Fasth (Swe)

67Vijay Singh (Fij)

68Ross Fisher, Angel Cabrera (Arg), Andrew McLardy (Rsa), Phil Mickelson
(USA), Paul Casey, KJ Choi (Kor), Richard Sterne (Rsa), Padraig Harrington

69Steve Webster, Frankie Minoza (Phi), Retief Goosen (Rsa), Brett Rumford
(Aus), Scott Hend (Aus), Andres Romero (Arg), Scott Sterling (USA), Wen-chong
Liang (Chn), Markus Brier (Aut), Chapchai Nirat (Tha)

70Gaurav Ghei (Ind), Anders Hansen (Den), Lian-Wei Zhang (Chn), Simon Yates,
Darren Fichardt (Rsa), Jose Manuel Lara (Spa), Daniel Vancsik (Arg), Ian
Poulter, Lee Westwood, Henrik Stenson (Swe), Jyoti Randhawa (Ind)

71Soren Kjeldsen (Den), Wen-Tang Lin (Tai), Nick Dougherty, Louis Oosthuizen
(Rsa), Jason Knutzon (USA), Raphael Jacquelin (Fra), Kyung-Tae Kim (Kor), Juvic
Pagunsan (Phi), Yong-eun Yang (Kor), Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa)

72Peter Hanson (Swe), Bae Sang- moon (Pkr), Gregory Havret (Fra)

73Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra), Rodney Pampling (Aus), Charl Schwartzel (Rsa),
Soren Hansen (Den), Colin Montgomerie, John Senden (Aus), Peter Hedblom (Swe),
Sung Lee (Kor), Nathan Green (Aus), Sergio Garcia (Spa), Richard Green (Aus),
Pablo Martin (Spa), Bradley Dredge

74Hennie Otto (Rsa), Mikko Ilonen (Fin), Bradford Vaughan (Rsa), Nick O'Hern
(Aus), Thongchai Jaidee (Tha), Carl Suneson (Spa), Marc Leishman (Aus), Paul
Sheehan (Aus)

75Marc Warren, Ernie Els (Rsa), Thaworn Wiratchant (Tha), Mads Vibe-Hastrup
(Den)

76Wen Teh Lu (Tpe), Nicholas Thompson (USA)

77Anton Haig (Rsa), Trevor Immelman (Rsa), Jean Hugo (Rsa), Ariel Canete
(Arg), Gregory Bourdy (Fra), Chao Li (Chn)

78Wei-Huang Wu (Tpe), Hao Yuan (Chn)

79Wen-gen Zheng (Hkg), Kangchun Wu (Chn), Graeme Storm

80Ming Jie Huang (Chn), Artemio-hiromasa Murakami (Phi), Alvaro Quiros (Spa)

81Wen-zhang Yang (Chn), Airil-Rizman Zahari (Mal)

83Mu Hu (Chn)