Villaroman leads pack

After a promising junior career that produced three world titles, Carito Villaroman never had it so good in the pro ranks, missing the cut in so many battles while trying to complement his game with the right attitude.

But after firing a four-under par 68 and gaining a share of the lead in a crowded leaderboard at the start of the Philippine Open at Wack Wack’s east course yesterday, Villaroman thinks his time has finally come.

"My mindset was just to take it one hole at a time because it all depends on how you execute each shot," said Villaroman, still in search of a big win in a long pro career littered with forgettable finishes and missed cuts, including in this event last year. But with an ego-boosting 68, Villaroman, a former Junior World champion, hopes to easily make it to the Open weekend and vie for the top $47,550 purse.

Villaroman, the Junior World champion in 1983, 1986 and 1987, birdied the last two holes to shoot that four-under card in one of the late afternoon flights and force a six-way logjam for the lead at the start of the $300,000 event serving as the third leg of the Asian Tour.

Flashing some kind of resiliency, Villaroman bucked a double-bogey, bogey start at the frontside, the backside of his game yesterday, with that birdie-birdie finish as he saved a 37 after opening with a flawless 31 at the backside of the par-72 layout.

Amateur Jay Bayron earlier took up the cudgels for the embattled Filipino pros who struggled in the opener of Asia’s oldest championship, firing an eagle-spiked 68 and tying American Jason Knutzon at the helm.

Two former champions came through with superb rounds in the afternoon flights with Anthony Kang and Wang Ter-chang shooting identical four-under par cards to gain a piece of the lead.

Kang, winner at Southwoods in 1999, survived a so-so stint at the back, where he teed off, by rattling four straight birdies from No. 2 to finish with 32-36 while Wang, who ruled the 1992 edition of this event at Puerto Azul, fired five birdies against a bogey for a 34-34 card.

But it was Liang Wen-chong who turned in the day’s lone bogey-free round, with the Chinese ace, who finished ninth in last week’s Qatar Masters, sizzled with four birdies, including three at the frontside, capping his 33-35 card with three scrambling pars.

Frankie Miñoza, winner of the 1998 Open at Riviera, struggled with a 73 while Juvic Pagunsan, the current toast of local golf, shot himself in the foot with a 79 and is in danger of missing the cut. Five others churned out three-under 69s, led by Aussie David Bransdon, India’s Digvijay Singh, last year’s runner-up Park Jun-won, Jarrod Moseley of Australia and Thai Prayad Marksaeng, while five more came up with 70s, including Taichiro Kiyota of Japan, Olle Nordberg of Sweden, Lin chien-bing of Taiwan, India’s Gurbaaz Mann and Korean Han Lee.

With 11 others turning in one-under 71s and a host of others matching par, expect the race for slots in the Open weekend to heat up in the second round today.

A bogey mishap on the par-4 No. 8 on his way home actually marred what could’ve been an explosive windup for the 27-year-old Bayron, who went four-under after the first four holes at the front, the backside of his game, highlighted by an eagle on the par-5 No. 4 where he rolled in a curling 20-foot putt from a solid 5-wood second shot from 220 yards.

But the reigning Philippine amateur champion dumped his approach shot on the par-4 No. 8 into the greenside bunker, made a poor blast and needed to pitch to within two feet for that bogey. He had nines of 33-35.

"I had a pretty good game. I hit the ball well and missed the fairways only twice," said Bayron, now the top player in the ranks after Marvin Dumandan turned pro earlier in the week.

But it was on the putting surface where Bayron stood out. The Davaoeño shotmaker, member of the 2005 SEA Games champion team that finished 12th in the last Asian Games in Doha, putted only 26 times, including four birdies inside six feet.

Knutzon, winner of the Macau Open in 2004 who finished joint 15th here last year, opened his bid for a second title on the circuit by gunning down six birdies against two bogeys for his own version of 68, thanks to solid shotmaking and steady putting which he hopes to dish out the rest of the week.

"I hit a lot of fairways and I was