TOP-SEEDED South Korean Tom Kim needed just 12 holes to advance to the quarterfinals of the Philippine Amateur junior match play championship, taking out Nathan Kawpeng, 7 and 6, for a shot at No. 9 seed Peter Tyler Po at Alabang Golf Club.
After the top six seeds drew opening-round byes, Kim led the advance of the top three into the next round with the emphatic win.
Po, however, needed to grind out narrow wins over Jaime Oposa and Dan Emilio Cruz, 3 and 1, and 3 and 2, respectively, to progress.
Second seed Ira Alido also ended his day early with a 7-and-5 win over Pierre Ticzon and will clash with Luis Castro next. Castro bundled out Alfonse Lazaro, 7 and 6, and Carlo Villaroman, 1-up, in that order.
Aniceto Mandanas, the No. 3 seed, scored a 2-up win over Joaquin Gomez and will clash with No. 11 Adrian Romero next. Romero defeated Lloyd Bantug, 6 and 5, and No. 6 Marc Corrales, 4 and 3, in that order.
Jona Magcalayo scored a 3 and 2 win over Annika Guangko to set up a quarterfinal duel with No. 1 Hwang Min-jeong of South Korea today. Hwang and the next five girls’ seeds earned opening round byes.
The quarterfinals and the semifinals of the tournament sponsored by the MVP Sports Foundation, PLDT, Smart, Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and the Philippine Sports Commission will be played today, with the championship matches in both divisions—which will be for 36 holes—to be played tomorrow.
John Jun, another Korean, produced the biggest reversal of the day after showing No. 4 Liam Cully the door, 1-up, to set up a clash with Ryan Monsalve.
Monsalve, the 12th seed, defeated Aldo Barro, 4 and 3, in the opening round, before disposing of Jolo Magcalayo, 5 & 4, later in the day. Musong R. Castillo