Cebuana golfer Junia Gabasa came through with an even par 72 to grab the lead after the first round of action in the girls division of the Philippine Junior Amateur Golf Championship at the Sherwood Hills Golf Club in Trece Martires, Cavite yesterday.
Gabasa, who happens to be the younger sister of one of Cebu’s finest golfers Irina Gabasa, also rallied at the back to get over a two-over card after 10 holes, putting in birdies on hole numbers 11 and 18 to author a 72 and post lead over Kayla Nocum and Harmie Constantino, who shot in similar scores of 75s while Nicole Abelar wavered with a 77 and Sofia Legaspi sputtered with a 79.
Constantino, runner-up in this event conducted by the National Golf Association of the Philippines last year, and Legaspi shared the lead at the turn with 36.
But the former struggled to find her rhythm thereafter with four bogeys at the back and had to sink a birdie at the 17th to salvage a 75 and the latter dropped four strokes in the last three holes, including a double-bogey on the last for a 43.
On the boys’ side, Luis Castro did not blink in the face of an early threat from Perry Bucay and sprung from a bogey on No. 11 with birdies on hole numbers 15 and 17 to get a 36-35 and storm ahead as the rest struggled at the tough par-72 layout despite the relatively calm playing conditions.
Carl Corpus rebounded from an opening 38 with a 36 but fell behind by three with a 74 while Paolo Wong lost steam at the back and hobbled with a 40 for a 77 for joint third with Sean Ramos and Bucay in the 72-hole tournament for 17-and-under players.