Kim, Saso top q’fiers

Yuka Saso. FACEBOOK PHOTO

SOUTH Korea’s Tom Kim and Filipino-Korean Yuka Saso topped qualifying of the boys’ and girls’ divisions, respectively, for the knockout stages of the Philippine Amateur Junior match play championship at Alabang Golf in Muntinlupa.

Kim returned a second straight one-under-par 71 and easily took No. 1 ranking over Ira Alido, with Saso firing a 72 to be the top-ranked player in the KO stages. Harmie Constantino took No. 2.

Kim, Alido and the next four seeds in the boys’ division earned byes with the tournament failing to fill the 32 spots because of lack of entries.

The first six seeds in the girls’ division will also see action starting in the second round, with the matches pitting No. 7 Koh Eun-A of South Korea against compatriot Jun Ji-ang, the 10th seed and the one between No. 8 Jona Magcalayo and No. 9 Annika Guangko happening today.

Aniceto Mandanas, Liam Cully, Jolo Magcalayo and Marc Corrales were the boys who earned first round byes.

Hwang Min-jeong, another Korean who won a title in the local ladies tour and who is seeking to hold both the women’s and girls’ national match play titles, finished No. 3, just ahead of LK Go, Kristine Torralba and Ashia Nocum.