Miguel Tabuena slips to 46th place

MANILA, Philippines — Miguel Tabuena failed to recover from a poor start and fumbled with a three-over 74 and tumbled from a share of 14th to joint 46th in the third round of the Panasonic Open now paced by Toshinori Muto at the Higashi Hirono Golf Club in Hyogo, Japan yesterday.

Tabuena sparked hopes of a big fightback from an opening 70 with an eagle-spiked 67 Friday but failed to get going, bogeying the first hole and then dropping three more strokes on Nos. 4, 6 and 7 in a birdie-less frontside stint.

He bogeyed No. 12 then hit back-to-back birdies from No. 14 and gained another on the par-3 17th, only to yield another stroke on the closing par-5 18th.