Puyat cards 69, stays safely for match play

MANILA, Philippines - Marcel Puyat fired a three-under par 69 for joint eighth place and well within target in the 2010 US Junior Amateur Championship at the Egypt Valley Country Club in Ada, Michigan Monday.

Puyat, who fell short of his bid in last week’s Junior World in San Diego where he wound up joint eighth, leaned on his solid start at the backside where he shot 33 and then finished with four birdies to negate his lone bogey mishap on the par-5 No. 13.

“I was hitting some fairways and giving some chances for birdies,” said Puyat.

“The greens are rolling really nice. If you keep putts on line, they drop and you don’t have to worry about anything else.”

The top member of the ICTSI golf team stood just two strokes behind Jordan Spieth of Texas, Stephen Behr of South Carolina and Davis Womble of North Carolina and in the company of six others heading into the last round of the stroke play elims.

“Marcel is playing well and he should safely make it to the match play phase,” said ICTSI team coach Bong Lopez, who caddied for his 17-year-old ward.

But while Puyat, set to join Stanford University, one of the most prestigious top academic universities in the US, next school year, stayed on track for a berth in the match play phase, Dottie Ardina faced the specter of missing the cut when she stumbled to a 12-over 80 in the US Girls Junior Championship at the Country Club in North Carolina.

Ardina, joint sixth in the Junior World, wavered coming home with four straight bogeys and limped with a seven-over 79 but made an 80 after their group was penalized by one stroke for slow play.

She was 13 shots behind Danielle Kang, who opened with a 67 and a three shot lead over Summar Roachell of Arkansas and Megan Khang of Massachusetts and two strokes behind a big group of 78s scorers occupying the 55th to 76th place. Only 64 players after two rounds of stroke play will advance to match play.