Kim 1-stroke ahead over Zaragosa, Park

CANLUBANG, Laguna — Korean Kim In Jae knocked down a birdie on the par-5 ninth on the way to turning in a two-under 70 and a one-stroke lead over fancied Rupert Zaragosa and compatriot Park Min Ung at the start of the 20th WWWExpressDHL RVF Cup Amateur Golf Championship at Cangolf’s North course here yesterday.

Recovered from a pair of early bogeys at the back where he teed off, Kim strung up three birdies from No. 13 then added two more on Nos. 2 and 9, the first negating his missed green bogey on the eighth and the other shoving him to the top of the heap.

Zaragosa, who came from behind to rule last year’s staging of the annual event sponsored by WWWExpress and DHL, and Park, a former Philippine junior champion, virtually matched shot-for-shot and puttfor-putt in the featured flight although the latter had to rebound from a disastrous double-bogey mishap on No. 10 with birdies on Nos. 11 and 16 to draw level with the local ace.

Justin Quiban, who led Manila Southwoods’ title romp in last year’s Fil-Am Invitational, also fought back from a two- over 38 at the back with a birdie on No. 3 to salvage a 73 for fourth while GJ Katigbak took solo fifth with a 75.

Ira Alido and Aniceto Mandanas carded identical 76s for joint sixth with Korean Ji Hyok Chung and Cebu bet Wei Wei Gao.

Ranged against Raymart Tolentino and Francis Sabio, Kim appeared headed for a struggling round after dropping strokes on Nos. 11 and 12. But he quickly recovered those shots with birdies on Nos. 13 and 14 then added another on the par-3 No. 15.

He stumbled with another bogey on the 16th but birdied the tough par-4 18th to preserve a one-under card before birdying No. 2 and scrambling for a couple of pars and holing out with a bogey and birdie to seize the solo lead.

Zaragoza, enjoying top form after winning a member-club tournament last week, hit one birdie to tie Park, who had a twobirdie, one-bogey stint, after nine holes. Park fell two shots off Zaragosa with that double-bogey on No. 10 but struck back with two birdies to save a 36 while the latter settled for two bogeys against the same number of birdies to remain tied at second.