Pagunsan powers into halfway lead at Bali Open
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Juvic Pagunsan of the Philippines produced a sparkling five-under-par 67 to take a one-shot lead from former Ryder Cup star Jarmo Sandelin of Sweden at the halfway stage of the inaugural Bali Open on Thursday.
The sweet-swinging Filipino lit up his game with five birdies at the challenging New Kuta Golf Resort to top the US$60,000 Asian Development Tour event on five-under-par 139.
Sandelin, playing on a sponsor's invite, moved into contention with a battling 69 while Japan's Masaki Sakata shot a 68 for third place. Singapore amateur Lam Zhiqun returned a commendable 70 to share fourth position with Australian Richard Moir (72) while Indonesia's Rory Hie stumbled to a 74 to sit five back.
In what is the final event of the year on the Asian Development Tour, Malaysia's Akhmal Tarmizee left himself in a precarious position after missing the halfway cut by one shot with a disappointing 82.
With the top three players on the Order of Merit winning Asian Tour cards for 2011, the young Malaysian will have an anxious wait to see if his closest rivals will overtake him on the rankings.
Pagunsan, who has one Asian Tour victory in Indonesia, was delighted with his sterling effort. "I played well and all parts of my game clicked. I made a lot of putts from inside of 10 feet and it's nice when this happens," said Pagunsan.
"The course was not easy with the winds blowing but I hit it really good. This is good preparation for me as well for the Barclays Singapore Open next week," added the Filipino, who birdied the 18th, fourth, sixth, eighth and ninth holes.
Sandelin, who has five European Tour victories, coped better with the tricky greens at New Kuta as he hit four birdies. "I played good from tee to green and managed to get the speed of the greens right. I'm happy to be up there. All good things have to start from somewhere, so I'm looking for a good finish here," said the Swede.
"This year, I felt I've played better than my results have shown but a big part of the game is down to putting. If it turns around here, it could make a difference."
Lam, a national amateur player for Singapore, took advantage of his length to birdie three of the par fives. "I made only small mistakes. It was pretty solid as it was quite windy especially on the front nine. I'm just trying to finish as high as possible this week and I feel I'm playing well enough," said the 21-year-old.
Hie, ranked seventh on the merit list, needs nothing less than a victory to have a chance of finishing in the top-three but made life a bit harder with a round littered by errors. "I didn't take advantage of my early start time and I had a bad start with two bogeys in the first three holes," said the 22-year-old.
"I kept hitting it a club shorter for some reason and didn't putt well enough. It seems like I didn't focus well out there. It's a good thing I'm still in the hunt and I'm going to give it a shot."
Akmal was disappointed to bow out meekly of the Bali Open. "It was a bad day. I couldn't get my swing going for two days and it was a real struggle out there. I'll just have to wait and see what happens with the other players. I can't do much more than that," said the 20-year-old.
Leading second round scores
139: Juvic Pagunsan (Phi) 72-67
140: Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 71-69
141: Masaki Sakata (Jpn) 73-68
143: Lam Zhiqun (Sin) 73-70, Richard Moir (Aus) 71-72
144: Rory Hie (Ina) 70-74, Simon Dunn (Sco) 75-69
145: Chang Tse-peng (Tpe) 71-74, Andik Mauludin (Ina) 71-74
146: Tseng Hua-yen (Tpe) 70-76
147: Hsu Jia-chen (Tpe) 77-70, Chang Chi-wei (Tpe) 75-72, Stephen Lindskog (Swe) 72-75, T.J. Kim (Kor) 77-70
