MANILA, Philippines – Juvic Pagunsan blew a two-under card with a wobbly frontside finish, ending up with an even par 72 to trail Ryo Ishikawa, Hiroyo Ikemura and three others by four at the start of the Japan PGA Championship at the Eniwa Country Club in Hokkaido, Japan Thursday.
Pagunsan, who missed the cut in the Sega Sammy Cup, also in Hokkaido before the Japan Golf Tour took a month-long break, flashed superb putting as he birdied Nos. 12 and 5 while saving five pars to join the crowded leaderboard. But the two-time JGT winner failed to get up and down on the sixth and bogeyed the par-3 No. 8 after missing the green for a 37-35 card.
He fell to joint 34th, four shots behind Ishikawa and ikemura, who turned in a pair of solid 34-34 rounds to share the early lead with Aussie Brad Kennedy, Korean Hwang Jung-gon and fellow Japanese Kensei Hirata.
Kennedy bounced back from a bogey on No. 2 with five birdies in a nine-hole stretch from No. 4. He birdied the par-5 17th to seize solo control but bogeyed the last on a missed green mishap to fall into a five-way tie in the Y150 million championship spread over four days.
Hwang looked headed for a big round after gunning down four birdies in a blistering frontside assault but faltered with bogeys on Nos. 14 and 16 and needed to birdie the last two holes to earn a piece of the lead.
Hirata, on the other hand, matched Ishikawa and Ikemura’s flawless rounds with his version of a 35-33 as they took a one-stroke lead over Akira Endo and four others.
Filipino-American Justin delos Santos, meanwhile, hobbled with a 74 marred by a backside start of 40 and in danger of missing the cut.