Thailand's Prayad shines at Yokohama Singapore PGA

Thailand's Prayad shines at Yokohama Singapore PGA

By Bobby Allen Wilson

SINGAPORE (JP): Thailand's Prayad Marksaeng caught compatriot
Thammanoon Sriroj yesterday in the US$200,000 Yokohama Singapore
PGA Championship at Raffles Country Club to share the lead going
into today's final round.

A brilliant course record seven-under-par 65 put Prayad on
nine-under-par 207 for the Omega Tour event and allowed him to
reel in Thammanoon who carded a disappointing one-over-par 73.

The Thai players lead by a stroke from South African Wayne
Bradley, who also returned a 65, and American Eric Meeks, in with
a 67.

Prayad, 31, ripped into the 6,829 yard Palm Course, shrugging
off a bogey on the second with eight birdies on holes two, five,
eight, 10, 12, 16 and 18.

"I was just trying to find the fairways and play carefully. I
did not attack the course, it's just that the putts all went in,"
said Prayad, whose round beat the course record by one shot.

Thammanoon had started the day leading by three strokes from
his nearest challenger, Arjun Atwal of India, and was eight in
front of Prayad.

At the turn Thammanoon was very much in control of the
tournament having played the front side in two-under-par 34 and
led by five shots from Prayad, Meeks and Indonesia's Kasiadi.

Kasiadi lies in fifth place after posting a one-under-par 71.
His day was highlighted by a fighting par four on the last where
he hit a 30-yard pitching wedge from a lateral hazard to eight
feet and holed a sharply breaking putt from the left.

On the inward half however Thammanoon stumbled home with a
succession of dropped shots on 14, 16 and 17. "I was not in the
right mood today," said 28-year-old Thammanoon. "I was very
irritable. I couldn't really relax. I played some very poor
shots. I need to calm down a bit." Thammanoon had a chance on the
last to sneak ahead once more but narrowly missed his birdie
putt from 15 feet.

The ball ran six feet by and he bravely holed out to
finish tied with his compatriot and friend.

"The pressure is off," said Prayad. "We know each other very
well which means there will not be so much pressure tomorrow. We
first played together in 1990 when we were in the Thai amateur
team."

While Prayad is chasing his second Omega Tour title to add to
the 1996 Volvo China Open, Thammanoon is looking for his third
win. Last year he won the Singha Thai Prasit Bangkok Open and the
Tugu Pratama PGA Championship in Jakarta.

Hoping to win for the first time on tour is Bradley who made
four birdies in a row from the fifth. "I made every putt I needed
to," said Bradley, who fired eight birdies.

The hole where he made his only bogey, the 399-yard par-four
10th, proved to be the turning point for his round. He pull
hooked his driver off the tee and after failing to find his ball
marched all the way back to the tee to play another ball. The
second time round on the very demanding hole he nailed his drive
down the middle, hit his mid-iron approach 25 feet from
the pin and holed the putt for a battling bogey.

"That hole fired me up and made me think it was going to be my
day," added Bradley.