Manila, 12 November: New Zealand’s Nick Voke shot a five-under-par 65 on the Jack Nicklaus-designed Masters Course at Manila Southwoods Golf and Country Club to take the first-round lead at the Philippine Open, the season-ending event on the Asian Tour.
Thailand’s Nopparat Panichphol is one shot back after a 66. His compatriots Tawit Polthai and Sarut Vongchaisit, Americans Kevin Na and Andy Ogletree, and Korea’s Jeongwoo Ham are tied third on 67.
Order of Merit on the line
The tournament will decide the Asian Tour Order of Merit. Leader Pavit Tangkamolprasert of Thailand began with a 68 to sit tied eighth. His nearest challengers, Australia’s Travis Smyth and Thailand’s Jazz Janewattananond, shot 73 and 74 respectively. Smyth needs a top-two finish and Jazz needs to win, in both cases with Pavit finishing further down the leaderboard.
Voke in form
Voke, 32, arrived after a tie for fourth at the Link Hong Kong Open three weeks ago, his second-best Asian Tour result behind third place at the 2018 Shinhan Donghae Open. Starting on the back nine, he bogeyed the 12th, birdied 17 and 18, and added birdies on the second, sixth, eighth and ninth.
“Really good. Yeah, the course is really hard. There’s a lot of bogeys lurking around,” Voke said. Now 20th on the Merit list, he joked about his form: “If you could find the secret, please let me know, mate. I’ve been searching for years.” He added that Smyth had been an inspiration: “The goal is to get in contention. Hopefully, win one next year.”
Nopparat, a two-time winner on the Asian Development Tour playing the event for the first time, needed only 27 putts. “I found the fairways and found the greens. The pin positions were really tough, but I putted well,” he said. Na, a five-time PGA Tour winner making his fourth Asian Tour appearance of the season, said: “The course can play quite difficult with these winds, and I felt like I played really solid.”
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