Samanodi grabs Q School pace after flawless 70

Kuresh Samanod in the Philippine Golf Tour’s Q School.

Davao native Kuresh Samanodi returned a flawless two-under-par 70 Wednesday to grab a one-shot lead over American Drew Proctor after 36 holes of the Philippine Golf Tour’s Qualifying School even as sophomore pro Kristoffer Arevalo made a 10-stroke improvement to crash into the top 10.

Samanodi will take a 139 aggregate into the third round at the relatively flat and wide South Pacific layout in Davao with the lefty Proctor just a shot back after shooting a similar 70.

Arevalo, meanwhile, fired a day-best 69 after gunning down five birdies against two bogeys, with the many-time national team member safely inside the top 30 players who will earn full status on the PGT Tour starting with the Apo Golf leg of the ICTSI circuit next week.

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The local tour has penciled a total of 10 legs for this season, with the field to play Rancho Palos Verdes after Apo before they head back to Luzon for the Lake Caliraya stop.

“I played a lot better compared to the first round,” the well-built Samanodi said. “Although the greens here are very difficult to read, I will just stick to my game plan and hope to play better in the last two days.”

Aidric Chan, the amateur who helped Manila Southwoods to its ninth title last week in the Philippine Airlines Interclub in Cagayan de Oro and Bukidnon last week, was four strokes down after a 71 for 143 even as the layout continued to bare its teeth with a number of pros failing to crack 80.

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Ozeki Kakeru of Japan, who had the first round lead after a 69, ballooned to a 77 to now be seven shots off as the pruned down field plays the final two days shooting to finish in the top 30 and ties.

Only the top 60 and ties made it to the final two days, and among the notable casualties were Australia’s Peter Stojanovski, whose second round 80 gave him a 163 total to miss the cut by a shot pegged at 18-over.