Juvic Pagunsan showed his familiarity with the Tokyo conditions and broke through with a solid opening round in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Golf tournament at the Kasumigaseki Country Club, Thursday.
Pagunsan finished the day with a 5-under 66. He stands tied for fifth place with two other golfers in Denmark’s Joachim Hansen and Venezuela’s Jhonattan Vegas.
The oldest member of the Team Philippines in this year’s Games was riding a huge momentum going into the backside. Then lightning struck and caused a suspension in play.
Nonetheless, Pagunsan shook it off and even continued to play well on the resumption, coming up with three more birdies including a huge one on No. 16.
He almost went back-to-back in the following hole but overshot the mark a little strong to instead settle for par. He then closed the day out with another in No. 18.
The 2021 Mizuno Open champion started well in the front nine, registering three birdies along the way. Not even a bogey in No.4 would put a dent into how well the golfer opened the day with a 2-under 36.
Austrian Sepp Straka led the wide-open race to the gold after a bogey-less 8-under 63 in the day. Thailand’s Jazz Janewattananond was not far behind, just a stroke off the world number 161.
Pagunsan will look to continue his magical run when play continues for Round 2 on Friday in this gorgeous course 74 km off the Olympic Village.
