Thais scorch Summit with 66s, lead by 2

LIPA City, Batangas, Philippines — Nemittra Juntanaket bucked an opening double-bogey with a cluster of birdies and found herself sharing the lead with fellow Thai Supakchaya Pattaranakrueang at the start of The Women’s Championship at Summit Point here.

Juntanaket actually missed grabbing the solo lead with a bogey on the 17th and a flubbed birdie putt from eight feet on the last hole but her 31-35 card spoke well of the caliber of the player who had seemed to flourish after each faulty start.

“The course is great and very easy to manage,” said Juntanaket, who also made a triple-bogey to open her campaign at Mount Malarayat last week but bounced back to salvage a 72 on her way to winning the event by six for her first LPGT triumph and second career win.

But the 22-year-old ace from Pha-Yao made a more stunning, if early rebound at the par-72 course which features 18 of the world’s best golf holes yesterday, racking up six straight birdies from No. 2 and finishing with four more against two bogeys.

For her part, Pattaranakrueang put in a fiery windup of six birdies in the last nine holes for a 36-30 round and a piece of first day honors that lined her up for a crack at the second Ladies Philippine Golf Tour crown following her maiden romp at Luisita last year.

Sharing the day’s spotlight was Yoopan, who aced the 157-yard No. 6 with an 8-iron Callaway EP using a Titleist ProV1 ball that went with her two birdies against a lone bogey for solo fifth at 69.

Korean Hwang Min-Jeong and another Thai Pimpadsorn Sangkagaro shot a pair of 68s for joint third.