Quiban fumbles with 74 despite early start in Royal’s Cup golf tourney

MANILA, Philippines – Unable to unhitch himself from early misfortunes despite a switch in tee-time, Justin Quiban reeled back instead of forging ahead, hobbling with a two-over 74 to tumble from second to joint 15th halfway through the Royal’s Cup in Thailand Friday.

Thai Sadom Kaewkanjana came away with a five-under 67 to seize the clubhouse lead at 11-under 133 total with half of the starting 166-player field still to complete play at presstime, including a couple of aces with a crack at the second round lead and a slew of others fighting it out for spots in the projected one-under aggregate cut for 70-plus-ties.

Quiban safely made it to the weekend play of the $400,000 championship, his third straight in as many events since the Asian Tour marked its restart after a 20-month layoff due to pandemic. But the glaring nine-stroke turnaround despite an early tee-off had some wondering whether the Filipino ace could still mount a comeback in the last two rounds or not. 

Just one behind Chan Shih-Chang of Taiwan after 18 holes at the Grand Prix Golf Club in Kanchanaburi, Quiban now found himself down by five strokes, still a manageable deficit but a task now twice as difficult to overcome given the makeup of the leading pack.

Or it could be more depending on how Chan and Swede Bjorn Hellgren would finish at the end of the day.

Thai Atiruj Winaicharoenchai turned in a 69 on a day he missed just one fairway and one green but wrestled with his balky putter and ended up with 33 putts. But his 136 total put him just three strokes off Kaewkanjana and in a tie with four others, including compatriots Donlaphatchai Niyomchon and Tanapat Pichaikool, Korean Sungyeol Kwon and Mathiam Keyser of South Africa.

Chan also had an eight-under card but the Taiwanese still had to start his second round bid at presstime with Hellgren birdying one of his first three holes for a running seven-under overall total.

After hitting all greens and missing just two fairways while finishing with 28 putts in anchoring his impressive seven-under card start, Quiban missed seven fairways although he remained on target with his irons, hitting all but two greens. He, however, struggled with his putting and wound up with 30 putts.

He bogeyed the first hole and double-bogeyed the par-3 No. 3 on missed green mishaps but bounced back with birdies on Nos. 6 and 9, only to drop another stroke on No. 12. He then birdied the 14th but failed to get up-and-down again on Nos. 16 and 17 before holing out with a birdie on the par-5 18th for the second straight day.

The two-time Philippine Golf Tour champion, however, is confident of a big bounce-back in the pivotal third round Saturday — with the pressure somewhat easing up and February 26 being his 26th birthday.