Arboleda ends up joint 23rd; Guan wins

FIL-AM Anton Arboleda carded a second straight two-under 70 and shared 23rd place with three others in the Asian Amateur Golf Championship topped by Chinese wonder boy Tianlang Guan in Thailand yesterday.

Arboleda birdied two of the first four holes then gunned down two more birdies at the back to negate his bogeys on Nos. 9 and 13 for that 35-35 card for a four-day total of even 288.

Rico Hoey, also a Fil-Am find who won the 15-17 crown in the last Junior World in San Diego, sputtered with a 75 and dropped to joint 28th at 292 while Rupert Zaragosa matched par 72 to share 33rd place with five others at 296.

“The performance of the two Fil-Ams showed that we will have a strong national team for next year’s Southeast Asian Games and other international competitions,” said Tommy Manotoc, president of the National Golf Association of the Philippines.

Guan, 14, fought off Taiwan’s Pan Cheng-tsung’s final round charge with clutch par putts in the last two holes to close out with a 71 and nip Pan by one with a 273.

Seven strokes behind Guan at the start of the day, Pan charged back to within one with a four-birdie binged from No. 10. But he bogeyed the 14th which Guan birdied for a crucial two-shot swing and the young Chinese ace hung tough in the last two holes to clinch the win and a ticket to next year’s US Masters.

Pan, who birdied No. 15 and closed to within a shot again after Guan bogeyed the 16th, finished with 65 for a 274 and will join Guan in the International Final Qualifying for the British Open next year. /inquirer