KOREAN expatriate Park Min-ung gunned down seven of his eight birdies in the final 14 holes to shoot a six-under-par 66 Tuesday and pace the classification phase of the Philippine Junior Open match play at Alabang in Muntinlupa.
The former champion recovered from a wobbly start to take a three-shot lead over Wei Wei Gao and move closer to the lightest possible assignment in the first round of match play starting tomorrow.
Rupert Zaragosa, another former champion in the field, was a stroke behind Gao after a 70 even as Lanz Uy fired a 72 to place fourth.
Aidric Chan, the 15-year-old runner-up to Singaporean ace Marc Ong in the men’s version of this event recently, carded a 75 like Gido Mandanas to stay safely in the upper half of the bracket.
Ira Alido shot a 74, with Philippe Palanca and Carl Corpus shooting 76s.
Park opened with two bogeys on his first four holes, drained four straight birdies from No. 5, before canning three more at the back to cap his hot recovery.
“That birdie on No. 5 settled me down,” Park said.
Yuka Saso and LK Go each turned in a 72 to pace the regular girls’ competition while Kang Dayun shot a 76 to show the way in the 13-and-under category.
JP de Claro (72) and Kim Tom (79) towed the field in the special division for boys 18-and-over and 13-and-under, respectively. Musong R. Castillo