Tabuena's pacesetting 68 powers team to 2nd

GUANGZHOU – Jungolf standout Miguel Tabuena collected four birdies in a tantalizing round on a breezy, chilly morning as he launched his campaign for the individual gold with a four-under 68 and put the Philippine men’s team in a fighting position for team honors in the opening round of the Asian Games golf competition yesterday a the Dragon Lake Golf Club.

The men’s overall performance overshadowed the performance of the women’s team, which finished sixth behind the 78 of Ma. Imelda Piccio and the 79 of Southeast Asian Games individual gold medalist Chihiro Ikeda to end the day with a 157, 15 shots behind pacesetting China, which had a 142.

Dottie Ardina did not count with an atrocious 82 in the event where the best two scores count.

The 16-year-old Tabuena birdied three of the par-4 holes, two of them in the front side, for a front-nine card of 33.

He opened the backside with his third birdie of the day, made another in the next hole, a par-5, before he bogeyed the 15th hole for a 35 and a front-running 68 which put him one shot up on two Koreans and one Sri Lankan.

“I saw him in the Jungolf circuit and I knew he will have a great future,” said coach Tommy Manotoc, referring to the Phl team’s whiz kid, who played with such maturity on a challenging course.

With the 73 of Jerson Balasabas and 77 of Mhark Fernando, the national team tallied a two-over-par 218 over the par-72 layout.

Marcel Puyat, a US-based golfer who came in to replace newly turned pro Jhonnel Ababa, did not count with his 80.

Despite the over-par contributions of his older teammates, the ICTSI-backed Philippine team ended the day at second in team play with a 218, eight shots off front-running Korea (210), which drew two three-under scores from Kim Meen Whee and Lee Jaehyeok and the two-under par-70 from Lee Kyoung Hoon.

“We just made a statement today and I guess, opponents won’t overlook us from hereon,” said Manotoc.

So awesome was the Korean rampage that the par-72 of Park Ilhwan didn’t factor in the four-to-play, three-to-count format, underscoring their pre-competition tag as the team highly-fancied to romp off with both the team and individual awards in men’s and women’s play.

A surprise third was Sri Lanka, which also drew a second-best 69 from Mit Kaluthanthrige and a 73-76 from two others for 223, while Japan and Bangladesh were tied at fourth with 224.

China’s women’s squad was naturally at home on the beautiful, picture-perfect course by the banks of the Zengjiang River, firing an aggregate two-under 142 behind the 3-under-par 69 of Yang Jing and one over 73 of Yi Jiayun.

Korea was two shots behind at 144 from a 70 by Kim Hyung Soo and 74 of Han Jung Eun.

Chinese Taipei was third at 148 while Japan was running fifth at 149 and Thailand in sixth with a 152.