Chan, Ramos carry fight for home bets
CARMONA, Cavite, Philippines — While the challenging conditions at the Manila Southwoods’ Masters course bedeviled most of his rivals, Thai star Sadom Kaewkanjana went about business with cold efficiency and came out unscathed.
Kaewkanjana, whose shining resume boasts a joint 11th finish in The 150th Open Championship at St. Andrews in 2022, turned in a bogey-free five-under 65 en route to pole position in the Smart Infinity Philippine Open yesterday.
A two-time Asian Tour winner who had competed in back-to-back US PGA Championships in 2022 and 23, Kaewkanjana opened his round with birdies on Nos. 11, 14 and 17 before adding two more on Nos. 1 and 7 en route to his 33-32 that put him one ahead of compatriots Danthai Boonma and Pavit Tangkamolprasert and Australian Aaron Wilkin at 66.
Kaewkanjana hit all but one of 14 fairways and reached 13 of 14 greens to set the tone for his fiery opener.
“I played very solid. I missed only one fairway and one green so I had a lot of opportunities to make birdies,” said Kaewkanjana, who managed to save par despite missing the fairway on the par-4 15th and the green of the fourth, another par-4 hole. “Happy with the result today.”
Aidric Chan and Sean Ramos took the cudgels for the struggling home bets as they submitted 68s – just three off the pacesetting Thai for a share of ninth.
Chan, a Southwoods baby, dropped a shot on his first hole at No. 10 but rebounded with three birdies on the next eight holes. He offset a bogey on No. 1 with a birdie on No. 9 to secure his two-under.
“Definitely starting under-par in a tournament is always one of the best things,” said Chan, who along with Ramos, ran one adrift the 67s of the fifth-running quartet of Japan’s Yosuke Asaji, India’s Ajeetesh Sandhu, Sweden’s Björn Hellgren and Thailand’s Settee Prakongvech.
Chan and Ramos provided the bright spot as fancied Pinoy aces like two-time Philippine Open champ Miguel Tabuena and 2008 winner Angelo Que failed to break par at 74 and 75, respectively. Top female amateur Rianne Malixi had a birdie-less 75.
“Just one of those days, not as sharp as an ‘in-season Miguel’ but it’s part of the game,” said Tabuena. “Could have been much better round but there’s still room for improvement tomorrow (Round 2). Hopefully I’ll play better.”
Notes: Reigning US Girls’ Junior and US Women’s Amateur titlist Rianne Malixi is making the most of her appearance against male rivals in the revived Open. “I’m very honored and I don’t take this invite for granted because not everyone gets to be invited, let alone a girl playing in a men’s field. So I’m just soaking it all in this week and hopefully I learn from the men,” the 17-year-old said. “Heading to the week, I just wanted to make the cut. Right now it’s kind of like a gray area since I hit it really high today. But game plan for tomorrow (today), just stick to it, hopefully hit more fairways and just give myself more room for par or birdies.”