CEBUANO champion golfer Charles “Chuckie” Hong continued his charge towards a third professional title as he stood a shot behind Keanu Jahns for the lead in the ICTSI Luisita Championship at the Luisita Golf and Country Club in Tarlac yesterday.
The Cebu Country Club product turned his day around with a windup of 32 to offset his horrendous start of 36.
The two-time champion on the professional tour had a three-birdie string from No. 2, capped by two birdies in the last three holes that negated his unlikely bogey on the par-5 No. 6.
“The pins were placed in tough positions and that made it difficult to go for birdies,” said Hong after the round.
Hong flashed superb iron play that produced birdies inside six feet and more than made up for his wet bogey on No. 5 and a missed green miscue on the 17th.
But Jahns kept to his guns and put in another superb round of five-under 67 to remain ahead of Hong.
Jahns stumbled with a bogey on No. 2, which he birdied in the first round, but rattled off eight birdies.