Thailand’s Chawalit Plaphol birdied the last hole to grab a one-shot lead over compatriot Kiradech Aphibarnrat after a blustery third round of the Myanmar Open yesterday.
Chawalit signed for a four-under-par 68, his third successive round in the 60s this week, and a 15-under total of 201 to overhaul overnight leader Kiradech, who fired a 71 in the Asian Tour’s season opening event.
After birdies at the first and fifth, Chawalit took the lead at the US$300,000 event with a birdie at the par four 12th, the start of three-in-a-row which opened up a two-shot advantage.
Photo: AFP / KHALID REDZA / ASIAN TOUR
However, he hit a stumbling block on the 16th where he dropped a shot for only the second time this week at the Royal Mingalardon Golf and Country Club in Yangon, double-bogeying after finding the left rough at the par four to fall back into a tie with Kiradech.
The 38-year-old bounced back, though, to hole a lengthy putt for birdie at the par-five last and take a slim lead into today’s final round where he will seek his fourth Asian Tour title and first since the 2011 Queens Cup on home soil.
“I want to win, but this golf course favors the long hitters like Kiradech. He is such a good player and I have so many other talented players trailing closely behind,” the world No. 438 told reporters.
“Overall I played okay except for two bad holes. But I’m happy with how I played. I followed my game plan and it seems to be working. I’m lucky I had that 15 footer birdie on the last to hold the lead,” Chawalit said.
Kiradech, who lost in a playoff last year, shot his worst round of the week after opening with a 64 and then a 67.
The former car racer, who is recovering from a thyroid problem, was optimistic about his chances of adding to his sole Asian Tour title, the 2011 Sail Open.
“You must have one bad round in four days of golf,” the 23-year-old, who also plays on the Japan Tour said.
“I controlled my round and was happy with a one-under. Today was quite windy so that’s why you don’t see many low scores,” the world No. 209 said.
Chapchai Nirat completed the Thai stranglehold on the Myanmar leaderboard by firing a 67 to vault up into a tie for third with Angelo Que (66) of the Philippines.
Thai Arnond Vongvanij (69) is three off the lead in joint-fifth alongside Australian Darren Beck (69) and India’s Rahil Gangjee (67).
Taiwan’s Hung Chien-yao is tied for eighth a shot further back.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier