MANILA, Philippines — Angelo Que turned in a one-under card with five holes to play but Juvic Pagunsan floundered in a backside start in the weather-interrupted second round of the VISA Taiheiyo Masters at the Taiheiyo Club Gotemba Course in Shizuoka, Japan yesterday.
Que, who fumbled with an opening 73 at the par-70 layout Thursday, rebounded from a bogey on No. 13 with birdies on Nos. 14, 18 and 2 but dropped a stroke on the par-3 No. 4 before play was halted by heavy rains.
Though he stayed too far behind clubhouse leaders Shota Akiyoshi and Korean Park Sang-Hyun, the long-hitting Filipino shotmaker, who won the TOP Cup Tokai Classic in Aichi last Sept. to move to No. 15 in the Order of Merit, remains optimistic of his chances to advance in the $1.8 million event serving as the fourth-to-last tournament of the Japan PGA Tour.
But Pagunsan failed to sustain an opening 69 with a bogey-riddled backside stint, limping with a 40 and slipping to provisional joint 56th going to his closing frontside stint.
Akiyoshi had a one-under card after 12 holes while Park had a bogey-free three-under score after 10 holes as they shared the clubhouse lead at seven-under aggregate, two strokes ahead of Yoshinori Fujimoto, who also scored a three-under with seven holes to play.