Manila, Philippines: Korean hot-shots An Seong-hyeon and Oh Soo-min surged into contention on day two of the 2024 Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC) Junior Championships.

After a slow start to the 54-hole tournament, the highly-rated teenage duo found their range in the second round over the Legends Course at The Manila Southwoods Golf & Country Club.

In the Boys’ category, 15-year-old An snared six birdies en route to a five-under-par 67 – a seven-stroke improvement on his opening-day effort.

Winner of The R&A Junior Boys’ Open in Scotland in July, he is attempting to go one better than last year when he was runner-up in the APGC Junior Boys’ Championship.

Heading into Friday’s final round, he is in a share of second place on three-under 141 with Siwakorn Kriangkrai, whose fellow-Thai Teerawut Boonseeor is setting the pace.

Teerawut, who turned 15 in May, added a 69 to his first-day 71 and has the distinction of being the only player among the boys to have broken par in both rounds.

He said: “My driving was good today – I hit more fairways than in the first round … and I was happy with my approaches and up-and-downs, too. My plans for the final round will be the same – hitting fairways and greens and giving myself chances to make birdie.”

Also within striking distance of the lead are Korean Son Je-yi, Sri Lankan Reshan Akash Algama, Chinese Taipei’s Andreas Kuo Shi-hi and Tom De Herrypon of France, the outright first-round leader, who is representing the European Golf Association.

They are in a share of fourth place on 142 and ready to pounce should the leading trio falter on day three.

Like An, 16-year-old Oh enjoyed a second-round birdie barrage as she tried to keep pace with Hong Kong China’s Arianna Lau, the defending APGC Junior Girls’ champion.

Star of the Queen Sirikit Cup-winning Korean team in New Zealand in March, Oh, who is the highest rated player in the field at 13th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), returned a bogey-free seven-under-par 65. Like An, it was seven strokes better than her day one score.

However, it was not good enough to make inroads into Lau’s lead with the Northwestern University-bound player following her opening 68 with a 65 that contained eight birdies and a bogey at the par-four 10th, her only dropped shot to date.

With 18 holes remaining, Lau holds a four-shot advantage from Oh with Jung Min-seo of Korea a further shot back in third spot in what appears to be a three-horse race for the title.

Lau said: “My putting was solid and I stayed patient and didn’t let the wind and conditions affect me. For tomorrow I will just try and do the same. I won’t be thinking about the result – just about one shot at a time.”

Meanwhile, in the team category, the battle for top honours looks like being between the two Korean teams.

Thanks to their brilliant performances on Thursday, An and Oh have soared to the top of the leaderboard in the event in which each team is made up of one boy and one girl with the aggregate scores counting on all three days.

Their day two total of 132 was no fewer than 14 shots better than the previous day and gives them a two-stroke advantage from the Korea 2 team of Son and Jung.

There is then a six-shot gap back to the Thailand 1 team of Siwakorn and Kanyarak Pongpitahnon in third place.

*LIVE SCORING OF THE APGC JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS IS AVAILABLE AT: https://bit.ly/APGCJuniorScores

Full Scores, Second Round

Boys' Division

140 – Teerawut Boonseeor (Thailand) 71-69
141 – An Seong-hyeon (Korea) 74-67; Siwakorn Kriangkrai (Thailand) 73-68
142 – Son Je-yi (Korea) 73-69; Reshan Akash Algama (Sri Lanka) 69-73; Andreas Kuo Shi-hi (Chinese Taipei) 69-73; Tom De Herrypon (France) 67-75
145 – Michael Yuen Chi-yeing (Hong Kong China) 76-69
146 – Anshul Mishra (India) 72-74; Raul Gomez Montalva (Spain) 71-75
147 – Andrew Yap (Malaysia) 75-72; Nathan Tsen Jac (Malaysia) 72-75
148 – Cooper Moore (New Zealand) 75-73
149 – David Charles Serdenia (Philippines) 74-75; Ranveer Mitroo (India) 74-75; Nguyen Duc Son (Vietnam) 72-77
152 – Nguyen Tuan Anh (Vietnam) 78-74; Shinichi Suzuki (Philippines) 75-77; Rayan Ahmed (UAE) 73-79
153 – Geoffrey Tan (Philippines) 78-75; Hsieh Yao-yu (Chinese Taipei) 76-77; Troy Storm (Singapore) 75-78
154 – Mohammad Skaik (UAE) 79-75
155 – Anthony Fang Kai-xian (Hong Kong China) 82-73
157 – Raymond Blas (Guam) 81-76; Muhammad Irtaza Hussain (Pakistan) 79-78
159 – Aaron Wee (Singapore) 79-80; Stussy Shiroma (Guam) 77-82
164 – Jevahn Mikel Sathasivan (Sri Lanka) 85-79
187 – Anand Batbold (Mongolia) 93-94
WD – Geoffrey Laklak (Lebanon) 81-WD

Girls’ Division

133 – Arianna Lau (Hong Kong China) 68-65
137 – Oh Soo-min (Korea) 72-65
138 – Jung Min-seo (Korea) 71-67
143 – Nguyen Viet Gia Han (Vietnam) 71-72
144 – Aasiya Saleem (UAE) 74-70
145 – Kanyarak Pongpitahnon (Thailand) 75-70
147 – Kaya Senara Daluwatte (Sri Lanka) 74-73
148 – Ng Jing Xuen (Malaysia) 77-71; Grace Pauline Quintanilla (Philippines) 76-72; Anna Le (Vietnam) 74-74; Zara Anand (India) 74-74; Alethia Paige Gaccion (Philippines) 74-74
150 – Aamiya Koul (Singapore) 75-75
151 – Reese Ng (Philippines) 74-77; Celeste Bobo-Lloret (France) 74-77
152 – Anna Ludvova (Czech) 76-76; Obi Chan (Hong Kong China) 75-77
153 – Wang Yung-jen (Chinese Taipei) 77-76; Parat Sukanant (Thailand) 76-77; Jeong Yoo-nae (New Zealand) 75-78; Denise Ng (Singapore) 74-79
154 – Chan Pei-wei (Chinese Taipei) 77-77
156 – Keerthana Rajeev Nair (India) 81-75
158 – Victoria Richani (Lebanon) 79-79
162 – Anca Mateiu (UAE) 79-83; Fatima Bushra (Pakistan) 78-84
166 – Belle Ngo Yi (Malaysia) 85-81
184 – Yanjinkham Batdelger (Mongolia) 92-92

Team Standings

278 – Korea 1 (An Seong-hyeon/Oh Soo-min) 146-132
280 – Korea 2 (Son Je-yi/Jung Min-seo) 144-136
286 – Thailand 1 (Siwakorn Kriangkrai/Kanyarak Pongpitahnon) 148-138
288 – Hong Kong China 1 (Anthony Fang Kai-xian/Arianna Lau) 150-138
289 – Sri Lanka 1 (Reshan Akash Algama/Kaya Senara Daluwatte) 143-146
292 – Vietnam 2 (Nguyen Duc Son/Nguyen Viet Gia Han) 143-149
293 – European Golf Association 1 (Tom De Herrypon/Celeste Bobo-Lloret) 141-152; Thailand 2 (Teerwut Boonseeor/Parat Sukanant) 147-146
295 – Malaysia 1 (Andrew Yap/Ng Jing Xuen) 152-143
296 – Chinese Taipei 1 (Andreas Kuo Shi-hi/Chan Pei-wei) 146-150
297 – India 2 (Ranveer Mitroo/Zara Anand) 148-149; Hong Kong China 2 (Michael Yuen Chi-yeing/Obi Chan) 151-146; Philippines 2 (David Charles Serdenia/Grace Pauline Quintanilla) 150-147
298 – UAE 1 (Mohammad Skaik/Aasiya Saleem) 153-148; European Golf Association 2 (Raul Gomez Montalva/Anna Ludvova) 147-151
300 – Vietnam 1 (Nguyen Tuan Anh/Anna Le) 152-148
301 – New Zealand (Cooper Moore/Jeong Yoo-nae) 150-151; Philippines 3 (Geoffrey Tan/Alethia Paige Gaccion) 152-149
302 – India 1 (Anshul Mishra/Keerthana Rajeev Nair) 153-149
303 – Singapore 1 (Troy Storm/Aamiya Koul) 150-153; Philippines 1 (Shinichi Suzuki/Reese Ng) 149-154
306 – Chinese Taipei 2 (Hsieh Yao-yu/Wang Yung-jen) 153-153
312 – Singapore 2 (Aaron Wee/Denise Ng) 153-159
313 – Malaysia 2 (Nathan Tsen Jac/Belle Ngo Yi) 157-156
314 – UAE 2 (Rayan Ahmed/Anca Mateiu) 152-162
316 – Guam (Stussy Shiroma/Raymond Blas) 158-158
319 – Pakistan (Muhammad Irtaza Hussain/Fatima Bushra) 157-162
371 – Mongolia (Anand Batbold/Yanjinkham Batdelger) 185-186

WD – Lebanon (Geoffrey Laklak/Victoria Richani) 160-WD