Thailand’s Sarut Vongchaisit endured punishing winds and a pair of bogeys to take the clubhouse lead in Day 1 of the Philippine Golf Championship on Thursday at the grand East Course of the Wack Wack Golf and Country Club in Mandaluyong City.
The Thai ace carded a 4-under-par 68, barely staving off his closest pursuers, American Charles Porter and South Koreans Wooyoung Cho and Jeunghun Wang, by a single stroke in the opening round of the Asian Tour season-opener presented by the Philippine Sports Commission and National Golf Association of the Philippines and sponsored by BingoPlus.
Starting from the back nine, Vongchaisit survived bogeys in par-5 No. 3 and par-4 No. 6 holes with six birdies to establish his lead in the morning flight.
“I’m feeling good. I just put on play all round and put in any bad shots. So, definitely it was tough out there,” Vongchaisit said.
The veteran, who capped the previous season with a Nam A Bank Vietnam Masters conquest, battled through gust of winds and pulled through with an opening-day pole spot and a hefty reward as round winner.
“The wind… especially on the back nine (was pretty tough). I’d need to study the course a little bit. I know this course is gonna be tight,” Vongchaisit said in the prestigious $500,000 event.
After his last bogey, Vongchaisit recovered his bearing with a par, birdie and another par to finish the round of the kickoff tournament of the Asian Tour season.
Porter, a towering 6-foot-9 bet who fell short in the event last year, posed a big threat in the afternoon flight. He was already steady with six birdies against two bogeys heading after 16 holes, only to shoot himself in the foot with a bogey in the par-3 No. 17.
“I was hoping to try to get first because there’s a big prize for the first today. I am happy with the score; however, I was playing really tough,” he said.
“The wind was tricky in the afternoon. Chipping out of the grass, that was really, really tricky.”
Two strokes off with 70 were Wang Wei-hsuan and Chien-yao Hung of Taiwan, Kevin Yuan and Travis Smyth of Australia and American Marcus Plunkett.
Navigating the carabao grass with the relentless cool breeze adding to the challenge proved tricky even for local bets.
Filipino-Australian Fidel Concepcion and Filipino-German Keanu Johns finished the opening day tied with 10 other golfers at the 10th spot with 71.
“The greens, obviously, they’re always tricky. I think that’s the biggest… that’s sort of the biggest protection of the golf course, the biggest defense,” Concepcion said.
“So, hitting greens isn’t really that advantageous. Sometimes it’s a bit easier to sort of pitch from the short side of the park rather than have a 30 or 40-footer.”
Other local bets faltered including veteran Angelo Que with 77.
Brycen Ko shot an even par 72 along with Jhonnel Ababa, Carl Jano Corpus scored 73, amateur Rolando Bregente, Justin Quiban, Mars Pucay and Sean Ramos posted 74s, and Rupert Zaragosa, Aidric Chan and Justin De Los Santos struggled with 75s.
Michael Bibat and Antonio Lascuna shot 76, while amateurs Perry Bucay and Juan Laurel, James Ryan Lam and Nilo Salahog, joined Que with 77s.