Murakami leads Asian Development Tour by 2 strokes

Manila, Philippines - Artemio Murakami stayed on track for his defense of the Philippine Open crown next week as he fired a five-under par 67 to take the second round lead in the PGM-ADT CCM Impian Classic of the Asian Development Tour event in Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia yesterday.

Murakami, priming up for the Phl Open set May 12-15 at Wack Wack, rammed in six birdies to negate a lone bogey mishap at the Impian Golf and Country Club as he surged past American Will Yanagisawa by two strokes heading into the last two rounds of the $67,000 tournament.

The ace Filipino shotmaker sizzled with a 65 Thursday and pooled a 36-hole aggregate of 132. Yanagisawa shot a second straight 67 for a 134.

Myanmar veteran Zaw Moe stood seven shots back at 139 after a 68.

Murakami is using the Impian Classic as a warm-up for his title defense of the Asian Tour’s ICTSI Philippine Open but is showing the kind of winning form that led him to a big victory at the Iskandar Johor Open on the Asian Tour in 2008.

“It was the same as yesterday. My putting was solid and I’m still hitting the ball nicely. My chipping didn’t quite work as I didn’t get up and down on the third hole on the par-5 and then I bogeyed my last hole (No. 9) after failing to get up and down,” said Murakami.

“My aim is still next week, not this week. But winning a golf tournament is a great achievement for anybody. I’m looking forward to this weekend. I’m hitting it so good and the putts are going in. I made a few long putts on the fourth and sixth holes from about 20 feet.

“I’ll try to keep my momentum through the weekend and up till next Sunday. That’s the goal,” he added.

Yanagisawa, who is based in Thailand, used a borrowed putter to good effect as he moved into contention. He is staying with Malaysian-based Andrew Argus this week and picked up a putter from the Australian, who is also a coach to several Asian players.

“It kind of convenient staying with Andrew and I picked up a putter from his shop and felt good with it,” said Yanagisawa, who was a teammate with Tiger Woods at Stanford College.