Shin shines with 67

Leads by two over Tabuena

STA. ROSA, Laguna, Philippines — Micah Shin provided the spark and sheen in an otherwise punishing day at The Country Club here yesterday, producing a stirring five-under 67 that shoved the young American past Miguel Tabuena in the third round of the TCC Invitational-Don Pocholo Razon Memorial Cup.

While the rest of the elite field came in ruffled by the gusts for the third straight day and rued the tough pin placements in the pivotal third round, Shin made it look a little bit easy with his crisp shots, near-impeccable iron game and exceptional putting, taming the dreaded backside with a mind-boggling 32 to grab the lead at four-under 212.

What made his feat doubly astounding was he did it despite fumbling with a triple-bogey mishap on an errant drive on the tight par-4 No. 4, playing the last 12 holes in six-under, capped by a birdie-birdie windup in a blazing finish that could easily win major championships on an exacting course like the TCC.

“I made a number of solid drives today (yesterday). Most of them landed on the fairways, an important aspect that I must duplicate to get a shot at the time,” said Shin, who grew up and honed his talent and skills in Davao.

But outside his birdie splurge, Shin, whose lean frame belies his power off the tee, made mention of his spectacular par-save on the par-4 No. 9 where he hit a wayward drive into the bushes, took a penalty drop and hacked a solid approach to within five feet.

“That’s my shot of the day,” he said.

Tabuena held sway majority of the way, mixing two birdies against the same number of bogeys but after Shin holed out with that birdie-birdie feat and moved up by one in a flight ahead, the defending champion went for a birdie to tie but ended up with a bogey and fell by two, his 73 dropping him to second at 214.