Delos Santos drops to joint 16th after 71

MANILA, Philippines — Justin delos Santos had a challenging day at the Taiheiyo Masters 2024 in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, as he struggled through a turbulent second round.

After an impressive opening-round 67, the Filipino-American ended Friday’s play with a one-over 71, dropping him to a tie for 16th place at the tournament’s midway point.

Japan’s Takumi Kanaya surged into the lead with a brilliant second consecutive 66, bringing his total to 132.

Starting on the back nine, delos Santos faced early difficulties, finding only two fairways on holes 10 and 16. This inconsistency led to two bogeys, offset by just a single birdie.

He hit more fairways as he moved to the front nine, securing three birdies there, but these gains were undone by three bogeys, leaving him with a 35-36 scorecard.

He thus slid down the leaderboard from his previous joint ninth spot at 138, now six strokes behind the in-form Kanaya.

The Japanese, meanwhile, produced a composed round, spiking his second consecutive four-under card with four birdies in the first nine holes. His aggregate score of 132 pushed him past Shugo Imahira, who finished the day with a 67 for a total of 133.

Several others kept the leaderboard tight, with four players posting identical scores of 135 and others close behind, making for a competitive weekend with 36 holes left in the fourth-to-last leg of this year’s Japan Golf Tour.

Despite the setbacks, delos Santos showed resilience. After missing a birdie opportunity on the 10th, he scrambled to save par but couldn’t avoid bogeys on the next two holes. He managed to recover with a birdie on the 14th, before closing out the round with four consecutive pars.

At the front nine, he experienced a roller-coaster sequence, bouncing back from a bogey on the first hole with a birdie on the next, only to alternate between bogeys and birdies through a challenging birdie-par-bogey-birdie-bogey-par finish.

Elsewhere, Juvic Pagunsan carded a 71 after a disappointing 77 in the first round, tying him for 75th with a 148 total.

With two rounds remaining, delos Santos will need a strong performance to climb back into contention as he joins the packed leaderboard chasing Kanaya’s lead.