Ramos hangs on despite 72; Villanueva misses cut

MANILA, Philippines – Sean Ramos continued to struggle after an explosive start, hobbling with a two-over 72 to drop farther back to joint 39th after three rounds of play in the Asian Tour Qualifying School Section D at the Thana City Country Club in Bangkok, Thailand Friday. 

Amateur Jaehyun Jung and fellow Korean Heemin Chang now lead the tournament.

While Ramos safely made it to the last round of the elims for spots in the Final Qualifying Stage, the young Filipino bidder needs to bounce back strong in the final 18 holes to advance and keep his bid for an Asian Tour card going.

Otherwise, he’d be joining compatriots Dino Villanueva in the sidelines, along with the two other Filipino bets before them, Enrico Gallardo and Gab Manotoc, who failed to make the grade in the Section C elims last week.

Villanueva carded a 74 and wound up with a 54-hole total 13-over 223 and missed the third round cut pegged at 214

Ramos kicked off his Asian Tour card drive with a fiery 66 in the first round for joint sixth but fumbled with a 74 Thursday and failed to gain much with a three-bogey, one-birdie card in the penultimate round.

Starting out at the backside of the par-70 layout, the former national team player bogeyed No. 10 for the second straight day, dropped another stroke on the 14th but birdied No. 17.

Another bogey on the tough par-3 No. 3, however, led to a 72 and a two-over 212 as he slipped from sixth to a share of 31st to joint 38th.

Jung, meanwhile, kept the momentum of his second round 64 as he shot a 65 to gain a share of the lead at 10-under 200 with Chang, whose even par 70 proved enough to put him back in the lead which he co-shared with Matthew Negri in the first round.

Halfway leader Kim Baekjun, also of Korea, fumbled with a 74 after a 65-64 and fell to joint eighth at 203 with Negri and Kim Jonghark matching par 70s for 202s and a share of third with Gyumin Lee and Michael Maguire, who carded identical 68s, and Michele Ortolani, who fired a 69.