Himmat Rai, Thanyakon Khrongpha lead the ICTSI Philippine Open – Asian Tour
Himmat Rai of India and Thanyakon Khrongpha of Thailand emerged as clubhouse leaders at the end of the first round of the ICTSI Philippine Open 2011 on Thursday.
The four-day event is being held at the par-72, Wack-Wack Golf and Country Club. The first day produced some exciting results as it came to an end.
Once again, two youngsters who are the emerging stars of Asia led the field in this tournament. Himmat Rai of India and Thanyakon Khrongpha of Thailand shared the lead. Both these youngsters carded a same round of four-under-par, 68 and led by a margin of
just one shot.
As for Rai, he continued to play in a dominant manner during his round as well. The youngster certainly showed his skills with his crisp iron shots and played excellent golfing shots during his round. His scorecard showed six birdies. The 23-year-old also
had two drop shots which came on hole numbers 4 and 18.
The 23-year-old Rai is enriched with talent and did not worry about the field around him. He caressed his way on top of the leader board and shared the lead. Rai in his last outing carded some great under par rounds. This is a great opportunity for the youngster
to benefit from his score and emerge victorious after the final round.
Rai said, “You need to keep the ball in play and that’s what I did. If you find the fairways, you have a very strong chance of scoring because the greens are excellent.”
The 23-year-old Rai from India was delighted to show a good display of golf during the first day as he slipped during the final round of Impian Classic of Asian Development Tour in Malaysia last week.
Another youngster from Thailand, Khrongpha played great golf during his round. He was hitting the ball well and was holding his putts on crucial occasions. Although he had three bogeys in his round, he recovered from the drop shots by making a total of seven
birdies. All these birdies were result of some great textbook shots.
Both Khrongpha and Rai will be hoping to maintain their birdie streak during the next three rounds as well.
Seven players are tied for the third spot. Veteran Wang Ter-chang of Chinese Taipei, Marvin Dumandan of the host country, Berry Henson of USA, Peter Karmis of South Africa, Mars Pucay and Jay Bayron of the host club and Hirotaro Naito of China carded a round
of three-under par, 69.
All these seven players are right behind the leaders and have a deficit of just one shot.
The American Henson is once again among the top contenders. He recently won his maiden title of Clearwater Masters and looked in great touch with his approach shots. Henson had a total of two birdies and an eagle during his round. He also had a single drop
shot which came on the par-4, closing 18th.
The second round of the four-day championship will commence Friday with all these youngsters ready to take charge of the leader board.
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