Pagunsan a shot behind in Indonesia PGA

JAKARTA—Juvic Pagunsan settled for a 4-under-par 68 in the third round and dropped to a second-place tie just a stroke behind leader Park Sang-hyun of Korea Saturday in the Indonesia PGA Championship 2014 at the Damai Indah Golf’s Bumi Serpong Damai course here.

With earlier rounds of 67-64, Pagunsan had a 54-hole total of 199 which kept him in strong contention for a victory in the opening tournament of the Japan Golf Tour where the Filipino is a regular campaigner since winning the Asian Tour overall title in 2011.

Park birdied the par-5 18th hole to wind up with a 67 and a 198 aggregate. Park was tied with Pagunsan and Japan’s Ryuko Tokimatsu after two rounds at 131 but the Japanese took a 74 in the third round and fell seven shots behind at 205.

Tied with Pagunsan for second was another Japanese, Michio Matsumura, who also birdied the 18th for a 67.

Pagunsan, playing in his first international event this year after he was ignored by organizers in the Asian Tour’s Solaire Open at Southwoods early this month, started with a bogey on the second hole but birdied three times in a five-hole stretch from the fifth to reach the turn at 2-under 34.

He kept his lofty place in the leaderboard with two birdies coming home.

Park sizzled with a five-birdie run on the front nine for a 31 but matched regulation on the back with  two bogeys against the same number of bogeys. Japan Golf Tour News