HONG KONG — John Daly shot a 2-under 68 on Thursday to finish four strokes behind leader Liang Wen-chong halfway through the first round of the Hong Kong Open.

Daly was 4 under with two holes to play, but bogeyed his final two holes to drop back in the event sanctioned by the European and Asian tours.

"I'm not too disappointed, being a little rusty. I haven't played in a month. Two- under par on the first round — it appears pretty good. I'll take it," Daly said.

The 42-year-old Daly, a former British Open and PGA Championship winner now ranked No. 788 in the world, said he's striking the ball well, but struggling with his rhythm because he hasn't been able to play consecutive tournaments. He made only five cuts in 17 starts on the PGA Tour this year and earned just over $56,000.

"I need to play three or four weeks in a row to get anything out of my game," Daly said. "I haven't been able to really do that in two years."

Liang, the Chinese star who won the 2007 Asian Tour Order of Merit, had a 63 on the Hong Kong Golf Club course.

"Even though the course is short, there are many places where you can run into problems," Liang said. "When you're not playing well, when you're impatient, it's very easy to make mistakes because the fairways are quite narrow."

Thailand's Chawalit Plaphol and Taiwan's Wang Terchang shot 66s.