Panuphol Pittayarat maintains overnight lead at Worldwide Holdings Selangor Masters on Asian Tour
Thailand’s teenage young gun, Panuphol Pittayarat continued with his rampage in the Worldwide Holdings Selangor Masters on Friday posting another round of five-under, 67 to maintain his overnight lead in the Asian Tour event.
Coming into the third round with his second round score of seven-under, the 18-year-old Thai shot another seven birdies on a sizzling day at the Kota Permai Golf and Country Club, Malaysia.
“I was putting great. My putter is on fire the past two days. The putt on 18, I didn’t see that coming. It was a no-thought putt. You could see I just pressed and putted. Luckily it rolled into the hole,” said Panuphol, who is nicknamed “Coconut” by his
parents.
Pittayarat dropped just two shots to grab the lead at the RM1.2 million (approximately US$400,00) Asian Tour event. Starting off the season with humble beginnings, Pittayarat has now decided to come out of obscurity to finally make his move.
“It would change my life. I’ve struggled at beginning of the season but I had a big week last week, practiced hard and it is paying off. Today was a big difference. This is my best ever third round,” said Pittayarat.
2007 Selangor Masters champion, Antonio Lascuna of the Philippines posted a stunning round of six-under, 66 on the third day to stay in contention for the second spot . Lascuna is outright second for the moment, trailing the leader by three shots and clear
of the rest of the field by the same margin. He carded six birdies in his near-perfect round on the final day and now has an aggregate score of eleven-under.
A total of 79 players made the cut after two days of whirlwind shooting at the scenic Kota Permai Golf and Country. Two players are tied for the third spot for the moment including Australian Adam Groom and Finland’s Joonas Granberg with their aggregate
scores of nine-under.
Crowd favourite Malaysians S. Siva Chandhran and Nicholas Fung are tied with another three players for the joint fifth with their scores of eight-under. Chandhran and Fung both shot rounds of 67 and 66 on the third day and enjoying the local support.
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