Cebu’s Go pads lead to 7 shots

Cebuano Lloyd Jefferson Go bucked a battle with the flu to pad his lead to seven strokes after three rounds of the 2014 Philippine Amateur Open Golf Championship. (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO)

Cebu’s Lloyd Jefferson Go continued to hold steady despite battling a persistent flu as he increased his lead to seven strokes heading to the final round of the 2014 Philippine Amateur Open Golf Championship at the Wack Wack Golf and Country Club East Coast in Mandaluyong City.

The 18-year old Cebuano golf sensation who honed his skills at the Cebu Country Club which he helped capture consecutive titles in the PAL Interclub, showed that it is not all about how one starts but how one finishes as he sank two birdies on the back nine to card a one-under par 71 and total 215 after the third day of action yesterday.

The Seton Hall student is now just 18 holes away from making history as he takes aim at becoming the first Cebuano to hoist the prestigious crown.

However, Go is not yet in the clear as stalking him, seven shots behind, is the Singaporean defending champion Jerome Ng who finished on a down note with two bogeys for a three-over 75 and an aggregate score of 222. In third place were Marc Ong and Abdul Hadi who had a 75 and 77, respectively, and were tied with scores of 228.

As what has been a trend in this tournament for the Cebuano youngster, Go failed to solve the puzzle of the first hole as he bogeyed the par-4. He also had a bogey there during the first day of action and fared worse during the second round with a double-bogey.

However, Go did not blink and made a 20-foot birdie on the 5th hole and added other birdies on the 12th and the 16th to go one-under for the tournament.

Another CCC product in the tournament, the Japanese golfer, Gen Nagai, finished the round with a 74 and was in joint eighth place with Antonio Asistio and Justin Quiban, who all share aggregate scores of 231 in the tournament presented by MVP Sports Foundation.