Murakami fires 67 but RP trails by 9

NARITA, Japan — Artemio Murakami took charge with a five-under par 67 as top gun Juvic Pagunsan lost his putting touch and didn’t count with a 75, and the Philippines salvaged a four-under 212 to trail fancied Australia by nine strokes at the start of the 22nd Nomura Cup here Tuesday.

Murakami, 22, came through with a pitch-in birdie on No. 1 of the rolling Narita Golf Club then strung up seven more birdies to negate his three bogeys for a 34-33 card as he anchored the Filipinos’ bid after Pagunsan failed to score for the RP team for the first time in his checkered amateur career.

Pagunsan, the spearhead of the squad sent here by the National Golf Association of the Philippines through golf patron Ricky Razon, failed to dish out his A-game as he struggled with his putter all day, muffing a three-footer for par on No. 5 and a two-foot birdie putt on No. 10. He had nines of 39-36.

A birdie-birdie windup capped Murakami’s superb round at the par-72 layout which the hot-starting Aussie squad turned into a virtual playground. But the RP team needed Jay Bayron’s resiliency and Erwin Vinluan’s steady game at the backside to tie New Zealand for third place.

Bayron, the former Uratex caddies champion, fought back from a 38 by gunning down three birdies at the back of the up-and-down layout for a 71 while Vinluan closed out his last nine holes on even par for a 74 to count for the team in the four-to-play, three-to-count format event also known as the Asia-Pacific Golf Team Championship.

The defending champion Aussies threatened to pull away from the pack by churning out a couple of 67s and two 69s for a 203, 13-under, and a five-stroke lead over South Korea. Michael Sim, the only holdover of the 2003 champion squad, and Andrew Tampion matched Murakami’s 67 while either Andrew Dodt or Korean recruit Woo Joon Lee counted with a 69.

Despite staying 9 shots adrift and notwithstanding Pagunsan’s forgettable round, RP team coach Bong Lopez and team captain Gen. Roberto Sabularse remained hopeful of their wards’ chances.

"It was one of Juvic’s bad starts. I know he will fight back and score tomorrow and the next two days," said Lopez, who also credited Bayron’s resolve and Vinluan’s steadiness at the backside.

But it was Murakami, 22, who kept the team together, his superb pitch-in birdie on No. 1 sparking an explosive round.

He birdied the tricky No. 3 to go 2-under, dropped two strokes in the next two holes on a missed-green, three-putt bogey mishaps but rattled off six birdies against a bogey in the last 13 holes.

"I had some poor drives early on but overall, I played pretty well, especially my short game. I hope to keep this form in the next three days and see what happens," said Murakami, who won the national crown at age 16 at Wack Wack.

South Korea, with Kyung Tae Kim and Dong Hwan Lee each firing a 69 and Sung Hoon Kang shooting a 70, took second place with a 208 as In Hoi Hur didn’t count with a 73, while New Zealand, led by Mark Purser’s 68, caught up with the Philippines at 212.

Japan, behind the 70s of Yuki Ito and Ryoma Iwai, shot a 213 to share fifth place with RP’s SEA Games rival Malaysia, while a youth-laden Thailand side stood at 214 in a tie with Taiwan, whose 13-year-old jungolfer played like a pro in an all-amateur tournament.

Cheng Tsung-pan, who will only turn 14 in November, birdied the first three holes of each nine and went on to fire three more that negated his three-putt bogey on No. 13 for a 32-32 card, two short of the 62 posted by Japanese pro Hiro Yoshida in 2000.

Still, it failed to fire up his teammates as Chang Chen-Chih could only score a 74 and Chen Ming-Chuan a 76.