Temperate start for Borja Martín (PAR) and Mario Galiano (+2) in the semi-final of the Asian Tour School that kicked off this Thursday on the Phoenix Golf Golf course in Bangkok, Thailand. Both are outside the top 18, those who will qualify for the grand final to be held next week, but they have more than enough margin to fix the situation in the three remaining rounds.
The cut with the top 18 (ties do not count for the classification) is currently at two under par, which means that Martín is two strokes from the big goal, while Galiano is four away. It’s time to row from now on, but it’s not an insurmountable distance by any means.
Both had very busy rounds today. Borja, a Basque golfer who works in a program tutored among others by José María Olazábal, has made four birdies, two bogeys and one double bogey. He had the round very controlled. He started at hole 10 with a birdie, then signed two bogeys at holes 14 and 15, but reacted very well with a birdie at 16 and two more at 2 and 6. He had put himself at two under par, the required result to be in the hot zone. However, a painful ending with a double bogey at 9, a par 5, set him back a few positions.
Meanwhile, Galiano started excellently. By hole 6 he had placed himself with a partial of two under par, with three birdies and one bogey, but was completely stopped by a cruel triple bogey at hole 8, a par 3. From there, he struggled to find the birdie path again and ended with all pars and one more bogey at 15, one of the most complicated holes of the day.
Without a doubt, the two rounds of the Spaniards have been very marked by those two specific moments, the final double bogey of Borja and the triple bogey of Mario in the middle of the round. It was not the dream start, but there is time and space to turn the situation around. As Galiano himself explained to Ten Golf, the course is demanding and a good round will allow to gain many positions in the coming days.
The sole leader is Korean Changwoo Lee (-6), followed by a stroke by four players, among whom is the Filipino amateur A.J. Chan. The 18th place is at -2 and the 60th place, where a cut will be made after the third day, is at +2.
