Miguel Tabuena shows the kinesiology tape wound around his painful shoulder. Photo by Ted S. Melendres
RIO DE JANEIRO—Miguel Tabuena teed it up in the most benign conditions in three days but could only manage a two-over-par 73 Saturday and fell farther back of new leader Justin Rose of Great Britain heading into the final round of the 31st Summer Olympics golf competition here.
As Mary Joy Tabal chased after a new national record in the women’s marathon Sunday morning (Sunday night in Manila) and Eric Cray got ready in the heats of the 400-meter hurdles Monday, Tabuena failed to fire at the Olympic Golf Course.
The 21-year-old reigning Philippine Open champion mixed three birdies with five bogeys, including three in a row from the second hole, on nines of 37-36.
Together with his earlier rounds of 73 and 75, Tabuena took a three-round 221 aggregate into the last 18 holes of golf’s resurrection in the Olympics after 112 years.
It didn’t help that Tabuena played with muscle tape wound around his right shoulder to prevent further injury to what Filipino chiropractor Martin Camara suspected was a strained ligament.
The 7,128-yard links-type course with shoulders of deep, fine sand simply reared its ugly character on the also-rans like the hurting Filipino ace.
Rose, who scored the first hole-in-one in Olympic history in Thursday’s opening round, gunned down a pair of eagles on the way to a splendid six-under-par 65 and a one-shot lead over Sweden’s Henrik Stenson.
The 2013 US Open winner Rose headed for a veritable final-round shootout with Stenson on a 54-hole total of 201.
Stenson, the reigning British Open titleholder, shot a 68 and stood two strokes clear of two-day frontrunner Marcus Fraser of Australia, who settled for a 72.
Rose also canned four birdies to cushion a pair of bogeys as he barely missed equaling the day-best eagle-spiked 64 of young American star Rickie Fowler.
Two-time Masters winner Bubba Watson, also representing the US, matched his 67 in the second round and surged into medal contention, six behind Rose.
In a round that he described as fraught with the unexpected due to the tightness of the course, Tabuena halted three successive bogeys from No. 2 with a birdie on No. 5. He got back to even for the day by picking up two more shots on No. 9 and 10, both from three feet.
Tabuena had his first shot at going under for the first time since his fine front-nine 34 effort on Thursday but he missed the green on the 479-yard par-4 13th and failed to get up and down.
He tripped on another bogey off a wind-blown second shot that landed some 10 yards to the left of the difficult 15th green before parring the rest.
“You saw a lot of guys shooting low and getting close to the leader because the wind was not that strong and the pins were accessible today,” said Tabuena, the country’s first golf Olympian.
“I put too much pressure on myself on the first two days as I tried to shoot a low number. If you try too hard here, you can go haywire.”
But not even the shoulder pain, which he first felt on Thursday after hitting a shot fat on the fairway, and the risk that it might worsen to prevent him from playing in key events in the next few months could stop Tabuena from enjoying his Games stint.
“One more day,” he said. “I don’t really like it when I play in pain, but this is the Olympics which happens only every four years. I’m happy to be part of it.”
Meanwhile, Tabal ran against reigning Olympic record-holder Erba Tiki Gelana of Ethiopia and the world’s other leading female marathoners Sunday morning at Rio’s Sambodrome, the venue of Brazil’s world-famous annual carnival.
The 27-year-old Cebuana was seeking to lower her national record of two hours, 43 minutes and 41 seconds by running a steady pace in the first three quarters of the 42.195 kilometers.
“I need to overcome the expectations of too many people and run my own race,” said the 10th of the country’s 13 athletes to see action here.
The Filipino-American Cray said his progress over the last three months—he set a new PH record of 48.98 during the recent IAAF World Challenge in Madrid—indicated he had a good crack at advancing to the semifinals.
“I am ready for my event,” he said. “I want to stay healthy to give it my best shot.”