Cuppers shiver in cold, trail by 9

HONG KONG —The Philippines struggled in the biting chill at the start on Friday of the Southeast Asian Golf Team Championship, falling nine shots behind leader Thailand after an opening 219 at the New Course of the Hong Kong Golf Club.

Juvic Pagunsan, the reigning Southeast Asian Games champion, shot a four-over par 74 after starting the tournament with a triple bogey while national amateur titlist Jerome Delariarte returned a 73 that featured three bogeys and no birdies.

The situation could have been worse if not for Jay Bayron, whose 72 saved the Filipinos from throwing away the tournament right on Day One and kept the favored Thais on sight going into the next three days in this 42-year old event known as the Putra Cup.

Paul Miñoza marked his debut in international competitions with an 81 marred by a half-dozen three-putts and failed to count for the team sent here with the support of DHL Worldwide Express, WWW Express, Mizuno and the Philippine Sports Commission.

"The bad news is we’re down by nine shots. The good news is we still have three days to hopefully make up the deficit,"said National Golf Association of the Philippines president Rod Feliciano, hardly fazed by the shaky start.

The second-running Filipino golfers, though, will have to make their move soon if they hope to catch the Thais and sustain the momentum of their unprecedented third-place finish in the last World Amateur Championship in Kuala Lumpur.

"I think we can do it,"said Feliciano. "We just have to stay relaxed, not try too hard, and keep our focus."

Thailand, parading a young team built around three-time individual champion Prom Meesawat, went even-par 210 during the first round spiked by the only sub-par score of the day - a 69 from teener Wisut Artjanwat.

The rotund Meesawat had a 70 and Ronnachai Jamnong a 71 to round out the Thais’output.

Host Hong Kong is in third spot, 12 shots off the pacesetters and three down on the Philippines after a 222. Myanmar, Brunei and defending champion Malaysia are bunched together at 225, Singapore is at 231 and Indonesia at 232.

The Filipinos, out to end a five-year drought in this event the country has won 17 times, almost twice as much as the next best team, had a hard time getting in the groove in the early-morning mist that had temperatures dipping to close to 10 degrees C.

So much so that their two best players — Pagunsan and Delariarte — gave up four strokes to par on the first hole and spent the rest of the round trying to lessen the damage.

"Sa sobrang lamig naninigas ang mga daliri mo,"said Pagunsan.

Pagunsan hooked his opening drive with a 3-wood so badly it sailed out of bounds, leading to his 7. He came right back with a 10-footer for birdie on the next hole but stumbled with two more bogeys on Nos. 8 and 14.

Delariarte found the greenside trap on the same hole for bogey ?the first of three he had for the day. But the things he rued were the makeable birdie putts here and there which he failed to take advantage of.

The steadiest player for the day turned out to be the 23-year old Bayron, a former caddie at the Apo Golf Club in Davao who used his victory in the 2000 National Caddies Championship to a flourishing amateur career.

The Canlubang-based golfer even got to even par following a monster birdie putt from the edge of the 13th hole and a two-putt birdie on the next, but reeled back with bogeys on the 16th and 17th holes.