Sarut Vongchaisit of Thailand stormed to the top of the leaderboard with a four-under par 68 in a thrilling opening round of the Philippine Golf Championship, presented by the Philippine Sports Commission, on Thursday at the East Course of Wack Wack Golf and Country Club in Mandaluyong City.
Battling gusty winds and a challenging layout, Vongchaisit showed poise and precision as he seized the early advantage in the first Asian Tour event of the year.
Vongchaisit, chasing his maiden Asian Tour title, began on the back nine as part of the morning group. He recorded birdies on holes 11, 13, and 18 but faced testing conditions as strong winds challenged players throughout the course, which offers a total prize purse of US$500,000 from the Asian Tour and the National Golf Association of the Philippines.
On the front nine, he added birdies on holes 1, 4, and 8 but dropped shots on 3 and 6. Despite the obstacles, he remained upbeat about his opening-round performance.
“I’m feeling good. Just put on play all round and put in any bad shots [behind]. Definitely tough out there, the wind, especially on the back nine (my back nine so it’s the front nine),” said Vongchaisit. “Study the course a little bit. I know this course is going to be tight, so a lot rescue off the tee… so I practice a lot on those, and mend irons. Took golf [off] for two weeks after the season, definitely missed golf during that break.
“Goal this year [is to] win out here on Asian Tour and hopefully get a spot for LIV,” he added.
Tied for second to fourth places are American Charles Porter and South Koreans Jeunghun Wang and Wooyoung Cho, all one stroke behind with 69s. Chinese Taipei’s Hung Chien Yao and Wang Wei-Hsuan, Kevin Yuan and Travis Smyth of Australia, and American Marcus Plunkett share sixth to ninth spots with rounds of 70.
“I was hoping to try to get first because there’s a big prize for the first today,” said the towering 6-foot-9 Porter, who mixed six birdies with three bogeys.
“I am happy with the score, however, I was playing really tough. I got to plot my way around this place. I’ve had a lot of drivers. I did that all day. Tried to stay patient and made a couple of nice birdies. The wind was tricky in the afternoon. Chipping out of the grass, that was really, really tricky. I think I’ll go try some chipping and try to figure it out,” Porter added.
Filipino golfers Keanu Jahns and Fidel Concepcion are tied for 10th to 21st places with rounds of 70 in the Asian Tour event, which the country is hosting for the second consecutive year with support from the MVP Sports Foundation and Bingo Plus.
“It was very tough. You have to play very conservatively,” said Concepcion. “I think I might have hit like one or two drivers all day. I was pretty much laying up just in the fattest part of the fairway the whole day. I think the key here is you want to hit most of the fairways so you have full control of the ball.
“And yeah, the greens, obviously they’re always tricky. I think that’s sort of the biggest protection of the golf course, the biggest defense. 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 30-40 footer,” he added.
Also carding 70 were Thailand’s Ekpharit Wu, Sarit Suwannarut, Poosit Supupramai, Tanapat Pichaikool, and Rattanon Wannasrichan; Malaysia’s Ervin Chang; India’s Shaurya Bhattacharya; Hong Kong’s Shunyat Hak; Pakistan’s Ahmad Baig; and China’s Chen Guxin.
