Zaragosa nears title he badly craves

RUPERT Zaragosa fired a five-under-par 67 on Thursday and zoomed to a three-shot lead over two Korean expatriates heading into the final 18 holes of the 14th Canlubang-Petron Amateur Open in Laguna.

The 16-year-old Zaragosa gunned down six birdies against a bogey that came on No. 14, as he takes a 137 aggregate into the final round of the tournament which he has been trying to win for the last three years.

Park Min-ung and Jung Tea-yang, who are both playing out of The Riviera, churned out a 66 and 71, respectively, for 140s, three strokes ahead of John Kier Abdon and Kristoffer Arevalo.

Abdon, a former winner of the match play championship, fired a 71, while Arevalo, a 15-year-old who won a junior world title in San Diego last month, fired a 70 to remain within striking distance.

Qualifier

This event is also being used the qualifier for the National Golf Association of the Philippines’ Match Play Championship, which will be presented by the MVP Sports Foundation, next week at the adjacent North layout.

Only the top 16 men and the top eight women will advance to the PH Am Match Play proper as Daniella Uy opened up with a 68 to lead young Bernice Olivares-Ilas in the women’s division by four shots.

Gabriel Manotoc lost steam in the second round with a 74 for 146, tied with Cebu’s Gen Nagai, who signed for a 71 in the men’s division, even as Harmie Constantino fired a 74 with Riviera’s Seo Yon-kwon shooting a 75 and Samantha Martinez firing a 75 like Hwang Ming-jeon of Korea.

Zaragosa has won several national titles and has made it no secret that he wants to win this tournament that his home course is hosting. Past winners of this event include the likes of Juvic Pagunsan and Jonel Ababa. Musong R. Castillo