Former European Tour winner Anthony Kang was amongst the leaders after the first round of the ICTSI Philippines Open.
The American, also a previous winner of this event, joined Chinese Taipei’s Lu Tze-shyan, Singapore’s Mardan Mamat, Japan’s Azuma Yano and compatriots Matthew Rosenfeld and Ben Fox after a three under 69 at the Wack Wack Golf and Country Club’s East Course.
Filipino veteran Frankie Minoza, chasing a third Philippines Open win, newcomer Charles Hong and Mars Pucay led the local brigade with identical 70s to lie one back with Thailand’s Thanyakon Khrongpha and Qualifying School graduates James Byrne of Scotland and Australian Wade Orsmby.
Lu, the nephew of multiple Asian Tour winner Lu Wen-teh, has made just two cuts in 26 Asian Tour starts, was five under with four holes to play but dropped two late bogeys to fall back into the joint lead in Asia’s oldest national championship.
“I putted well. Holed quite a few ten foot putts and some long ones. Overall, I played okay. I saw that I was leading and I was happy. But I got a bit nervous as well. On the third hole (his 12th), the TV cameras started to follow me. This is the first time I’m playing well on the Asian Tour and I wasn’t used to it,” said Lu, who started his round with four straight birdies from the 12th holes.
Some 13 years after securing his maiden Asian Tour victory at the Philippine Open, Kang was back in the hunt once more thanks to four birdies against a lone bogey.
“It’s very special. Every time I come back, I feel this is basically the place where it all started,’ said Kang, who finished in the top ten at the season-opening event in Myanmar last week.
“Before I went out, I talked to Mo Joong-kyung and he told me to make lots of pars and that was my plan. I got off to a fast start with birdies on the first two holes and played solid. Just hitting greens and fairways which made the round a lot easier. It was nice.”
