CARMONA, Cavite—Juvic Pagunsan turned the Manila Southwoods’ Legends layout upside down Thursday, shooting a nine-under-par 62 to zoom into a one-stroke lead over young Thai Pijit Petchkasem after 36 holes of the $100,000 Aboitiz Invitational.
The 37-year-old Pagunsan was bogey-free for the second straight day like Petchkasem. But the big difference this time was that the Filipino was able to hole several long putts in a nine-birdie binge for a 131 aggregate in the tournament jointly sanctioned by the Asian Development Tour and the Philippine Golf Tour.
But his 62 won’t be recognized as a new course record since the tournament has put the lift-clean-and-place rule in effect since the first round because of heavy rains that left the Legends soggy.
Antonio Lascuña, the defending champion who could only match par Thursday to be eight shots off, still holds the record of 64 shot two years ago during a regular PGT leg, when the course played as a par-72.
Petchkasem shot a second straight 66 for 132 with Zannie Boy Gialon firing a 63 and Angelo Que shooting a 67 to stay two shots off Pagunsan.
Pagunsan gunned down five of his nine birdies coming home and needed just 24 putts for the round.
Que rued bad putting after flubbing what he said were at least five very makeable putts on his back nine.
“It happens,” said Que. “The good thing about today was that I didn’t stray too far from the lead.”
Petchkasem birdied four holes on the front nine for nines of 32-34.
Gialon dropped a shot on the 14th, which was reduced to a par-4 by tournament organizers, then went birdie-birdie-birdie to match Pagunsan’s nine for the day.
Finland’s Janne Kaske returned a 68 and was three shots adrift, with Australia’s Paul Donahoo shooting a 66 and Japan’s Masaru Takahashi firing a 69 to trail by four.
Ferdie Aunzo was the third Filipino in the top 10 after carding a 67 for 136, leading a seven-man group that included first round co-leaders Arie Irawan of Malaysia, Malcolm Kokocinski of Sweden and Eugene Sim of Singapore who all fired 70s.
The cut was pegged at even par with Miguel Tabuena making it on the number along with Charles Hong. Among the casualties were Frankie Miñoza and former Philippine Open king Artemio Murakami, both at 2 over.