RP golfers off to fiery start, lead by 3

SINGAPORE — Team Philippines put on an amazing display of shotmaking, firing a combined score of seven-under 135 yesterday and posting a three-stroke lead over Singapore at the start of the 59th Singapore Open Amateur Championship at the par-71 Singapore Island Country Club’s Bukit course here.

Marvin Dumandan, shrugging off a week-long layoff after winning the recent North Orange Country Amateur Championship in California, tapped in for birdie on the par-5 18th, capping his remarkable comeback from a one-over card in the early going and catching defending individual champion Choo Tze Huang at the helm in individual play with a four-under par 67 (33-34).

Jay Bayron matched Dumandan’s birdie-finish to fire a three-under par 68 (35-33) as Team Philippines, whose stint here is sponsored by ICTSI, raced away with a three-shot lead over Choo and Jonathan Leong in the team championship the Filipinos won through Juvic Pagunsan and Michael Bibat last year.

Bibat, the 2004 individual champion who is expected to join Dumandan and Bayron in the RP squad competing in this year’s Asian Games in Doha, went for the 18th green but wound up with a bogey instead after hitting it into the woods. He settled for an even par 71 (35-36).

That was the same output put in by Anthony Fernando (36-35) although the rest of the Filipino players training under the ICTSI golf program groped for form and struggled on the tight fairways of the par 35-36 layout.

Miko Alejandro had a 74, Gene Bondoc fumbled with a 76, Eugene Bunyi limped with a 77 while Dante Becierra skied with an 80 on his first international stint.

Still, national team coach Bong Lopez said he was satisfied with how his wards fared in the opener of this four-day championship serving as part of the team’s buildup for the World Amateurs and the Asian Games.

"Marvin and Jay are expected to do just that but overall, I think the boys played up to par despite the shaky starts of the four other players," said Lopez, also the man at the helm of the ICTSI golf program together with coach Nestor Mendoza.

Dumandan, who with Pagunsan, Bayron and Bibat helped power Team RP’s romp in last year’s SEA Games, birdied the first hole to put his bid in motion but made a double-bogey on the par-3 No. 5 on an errant 6-iron shot to go one-over.

That mishap, however, failed to slow down the power-hitting 27-year-old shotmaker, winner of the DHL Open back home. Instead, it fired him up.

Flashing the same kind of resiliency he showed in fashioning out that come-from-behind victory in California, Dumandan came through with superb iron shots that set up pin-high birdie putts.

He birdied Nos. 6 and 8, flubbed an eagle putt from 15 feet on the ninth before gunning down three more birdies at the back that negated his lone-bogey mishap on No. 11.

Bayron, a veteran internationalist, appeared headed for an explosive round on a sunny, windless day here after making three straight birdies from No. 3.But he stumbled with bogeys on No. 6 and 9 and needed to fight back with three birdies against a bogey at the back to salvage that 68 and help secure a three-stroke lead for Team RP.

Choo failed to draw a solid game from Leong, who matched par 71 as Singapore pooled a 138, one shot better than RP’s perennial regional rival Thailand. Anujit Hirunrattanakorn, fancied to spearhead the Thais’ bid in the Asiad, fought back from a three-over par card with birdies in the last nine holes, finishing with a one-under par 70 while Varan Israbhakdi shot a 69 for a 139.