Luis Castro carded a second straight 69 and stormed to a huge 9-stroke lead over Kim Sang Jin halfway through the first Aguinaldo Junior Open Championship at the Camp Aguinaldo Golf Club in QC yesterday.
Castro actually failed to shake off Kim in the early going and remained 2-up with identical 36s at the turn. But the former birdied the 10th and gained on a two-shot swing on a Kim bogey to go 4-up then pulled away with a 33 as his rival fumbled with four more bogeys and a double-bogey on the par-5 18th for a 40 and a 76.
With a 138 total, Castro, a member of the national training pool, stood 9 shots clear of Kim, who pooled a 147, with two rounds left in the tournament dubbed as the Red Jacket organized and conducted by the National Golf Association of the Philippines and hosted by CAGC.
