LADY GOLFER Jayvie Agojo gave the star-studded field a run for their money as she shot in a one-under 69 to take the lead over fancied Juvic Pagunsan at the start of the The Country Club Invitational yesterday at the TCC greens in Canlubang, Laguna.
Pagunsan knocked down tough par putts in howling winds in the last three holes to salvage an even par 70, then watched Elmer Salvador hobble home with a string of bogeys and the rest flounder in exacting condition to put in motion his bid for a third championship in this blue-ribbon event featuring a power-packed cast chasing the top P1.4-million purse.
Agojo, the reigning Hong Kong Amateur champion, surprised the elite field with birdies in the first two holes. She rammed in another on No. 5 for a sterling 32. But like everybody else, she floundered when the going got tough at the back, bogeying two of the last three holes of that 69.
Salvador, the ICTSI-PGT Order of Merit champion in 2009, looked headed for an explosive round when he birdied three of the last five holes at the front. But he went on an attack mode at the back and paid dearly for it, fumbling with back-to-back bogeys from No. 11 and dropped two more strokes in the last three holes in a birdie-less backside stint for a 71.
That enabled Pagunsan, winner here in 2006 and 2008, to seize the early lead among the pros for the momentum needed on this daunting par-70 layout made longer after organizers turned the two par-5s into par-4s (Nos. 8 and 10). /Correspondent Jonas Panerio