Malaysian sets pace with 69 in PGT Q-school at Splendido
MALAYSIAN U Minn Woon marked his first foray in the Philippine Golf Tour (PGT) Q-school in style with an impressive three-under 69 to lead Nilo Salahog by two at the start of the 72-hole eliminations at the Splendido Taal Golf Club in Tagaytay City on Tuesday.
Woon, who moved to Florida at 16, played college golf at Fairleigh Dickinson University and won the St. Augustine Amateur title at St. Johns in 2018, banked on his superb allaround game to dominate the rolling and challenging layout he hardly had knowledge of.
He birdied two of the first three holes at the back where he teed off and gained more strokes on Nos. 2 and 3 before holing out with a bogey on the par-five No. 9.
Still, his 35-34 card proved enough to net him the early lead over Salahog, who birdied the first two holes at the front but scrambled with three bogeys against two more birdies in hot conditions for a 71.
Carlos Packing, a veteran interclub campaigner, bounced back from a flawed backside 38 with birdies on Nos. 1 and 8 as he rescued a 72 for solo third, while Russell Bautista missed gaining solo second as he blew a two-under card on birdies on Nos. 2 and 3 with three bogeys in the last five holes at the front.
But the Cebuano bet still emerged the top amateur with a 73 despite dropping to joint fourth with Korean Kim Seong Guk, Japanese Toru Nakajima and Rene Menor.
Menor, who posted his first and only career victory here in PGT Asia in 2017, beating Thai Pasavee Lertvilai and American John Michael O’toole in sudden death, also fumbled in a backside finish, bogeying Nos. 15 and 17 for a 35-38.
Nakajima, bidding to regain his PGT card after winning the Wack Wack leg in 2013, had a quiet onebirdie, double-bogey round, while Kim also squandered a one-under effort with bogeys on Nos. 6 and 9.