Pagunsan assumes command in Bacolod

BACOLOD—Juvic Pagunsan fired a flawless four-under-par 66 Thursday to ease ahead by one over a hot-charging James Ryan Lam as Japanese Yudai Suzuki slipped with a 74 in the second round of the rich ICTSI Negros Occidental Classic here.

With erstwhile leader Suzuki turning from awesome (64) to awful and Jhonnel Ababa throwing away three strokes on the par-5 No. 18 and ending up a 68, the hometown hero took his familiar spot on top with a 36-hole 132 aggregate, keeping his razor-sharp form while attending to his ailing wife.

“It’s a day-to-day struggle. My focus is still divided and I just hope to do well in the last two days,” said Pagunsan, the defending champion.

But as Suzuki and Ababa fumbled and stumbled in hot conditions, Lam came out of nowhere to assume the challenger’s role at 133, spiking his fiery 64 with seven birdies, including two in his last four holes that ended in the front nine.

It was a big surge for Lam, who placed last in Club Filipino de Cebu Invitational and missed the cut in last week’s Bacolod Classic. After an opening 69, the former PGT Asia leg winner at Luisita hit three birdies at the back then picked up strokes on the first two holes at the front. He took his first bogey on the fifth but birdied the sixth and eighth to threaten Pagunsan.

Zanieboy Gialon, winner here in 2012, also moved into contention with a 67, pooling a 135 for joint third with the United States’ Pete Vilairata, who also shot a 67.