Benign day has field conquering Pradera as three share lead

Zanieboy Gialon: Seven birdies in 10 holes. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Playing a wide-open layout with its greens rolling as pure as they can, a three-way tie for the lead after the first round of the ICTSI Pradera Verde Championship was forged as scoring changed dramatically from the last leg a week ago in Baguio where the talented field struggled.

Zanieboy Gialon, Russell Bautista and the returning Carl Corpus all had hot birdie streaks after bum starts at the Arayat course and returned five-under-par 67s to lead a two-man group by a shot, five others by two strokes and another eight players who are all within four.

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“There wasn’t much wind, so the scoring was pretty good, and the par-5s were reachable,” Gialon, who used to be the host club’s head pro, said in Filipino after gunning down all seven of his birdies in a 10-hole stretch starting from the par-4 sixth.

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“I just hope my putting stays sharp, especially my green reading and distance control,” he added.

The challenge this week is a far departure from the one the same field had to endure at Pinewoods in the Cordillera mountain range where LJ Go dominated by shooting a 72-hole 272 for a record 12-shot win over Jeff Lumbo.

The 31-year-old had just two birdies against the same number of bogeys on Tuesday’s opening round to trail big, although he is well within range of making the cut and figuring in the weekend.

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Big-hitting Keanu Jahns and the wily Antonio Lascuña fired 68s, with Lumbo shooting a 69 like Gab Manotoc, Kuresh Samanodi, American Collin Wheeler and the in-form Angelo Que.

Clyde Mondilla and Rupert Zaragosa carved out 70s to be within three as scoring is expected to be the same for the rest of the week unless the spproaching supertyphoon Bavi (Inday) affects the Lubao, Pampanga area.

“The greens are in excellent shape, and I hit my approach shots close,” said Corpus. “I haven’t putted on greens this good in a while, so I was excited to be out there.” INQ

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