Olympics: Tabuena cards brave 73, trails leaders by 18

Miguel Tabuena shows the kinesiology tape wound around his painful shoulder. Photo by Ted Melendres

RIO DE JANEIRO–Miguel Tabuena gutted out a wind-blown two-over-par 73 despite a hurting shoulder and finished well behind the leaders three rounds through the Rio Olympics competition at Olimpico de Golfe here.

With an athletic (kinesiology) tape wound around his right shoulder to ease the pain, Tabuena fought back from three consecutive bogeys from the second hole to turn in gritty nines of 37-36.

Together with his earlier rounds of 73 and 75, the 21-year-old reigning Philippine Open champion totalled 220, eight over par over the 7,128-yard links-type course.

Belgium’s Thomas Pieters caught overnight frontrunner Marcus Fraser in the lead with a birdie right on the first hole to be at 10 under, 18 shots clear of the Philippines’ first golf Olympian.

Pieters, Fraser and Sweden’s British Open winner Henrik Stenson showed up the field in that order after the first two holes, with Stenson two behind the co-leaders at 8-under.

The 21-year-old Tabuena birdied the 10th and 11th holes from within three feet to get to 1 over for the day but dropped shots on the difficult 13th and 15th holes that set him back again.

“The pain is still there but I played through it because I wanted to complete this tournament,” Tabuena, who felt pain in his right shoulder in the first round after hitting a shot fat on the fairway.

“One more day tomorrow. I don’t really like it when I play in pain, but this is the Olympics and you’re wearing your country’s flag on your shirt.”