Gunasegaran plays poorly but stays on top of leaderboard

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

P. Gunasegaran of Malaysia put in a dismal performance on the second day of the Rp 450 million (US$50,000) Olympic Open golf tournament, yet he ended up at the top of the leaderboard after Wednesday's competition, thanks to poorer runs by rivals.

Gunasegaran carded one-over-par 73, but he led the standings by four strokes after Maan Nasim, his fellow leader on the opening day, crashed to five-over par 77.

The two had registered two-under-par on the first day.

Burhan Bora of Indonesia shot four-over-par 76 for a total of 148 to tie with Chen Yuan Chi of Chinese Taipei, who, being one- under on the opening day, blew to five-over-par 77.

Defending champion Stephen Atako Lindskog of Sweden and 2000 winner Wang Ter Chang of Chinese Taipei had also yet to lift their play.

Wang shot four-over for an overall five-over-par 149. Lindskog also ended up four-over for six-over-par 150 with local hopeful Ilyassyak.

Cho Min-am of South Korea also failed to maintain his form to drop to tied-13. But his overall 154 from two days appeared to be the best score of the amateurs.

The second day of competition at the Cikarang Golf & Country Club proved barren, with no golfers playing under. The complaints were the same: treacherous roughs and slick greens, according to a media release here.

"With the fairway like this, we can liken this competition to big matches in the United States and England," said American Michael Rich.

Wahyu Uke Hendarman, who once underwent golf tutelage in California, opined the same. "The pins are exceptionally difficult to tame. It makes the tournament seem as difficult as in U.S. Open," he said.

Tough matches abounded in flight 12, which grouped Gunasegaran, Maan and Uke.

Gunasegaran and Maan scored 37 strokes after completing the front nine. But the Malaysian embarked on the back nine as the quieter side to close the play with 36, compared with Maan's 40.

After two days of competition, 42 of the 89 participants should get over the cutoff and are ready for the remaining two match days to Friday. The three best amateurs should also join the list.

But the organizers failed to give out the qualifiers list.