Manila, Philippines: Prim Prachnakorn produced a sparkling opening-day performance as Thailand claimed early honours in the 2023 Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC) Junior Championships.

Making light of her position as 479th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), Prim carded a four-under-par 68 at Manila’s Orchard Golf & Country Club.

She was the only one of the 22 girls in the starting field to better par on the Arnold Palmer Course and will take a four-stroke lead over Korean Seo Kyo-rim into Wednesday’s second and penultimate round of the individual event.

Thanks to Prim’s effort and a 74 from her male compatriot Parin Sarasmut, Thailand holds a narrow advantage in the team event, with pairings from Korea and Chinese Taipei breathing down their necks.

In the boys’ individual events, Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Po-cheng was fastest out of the blocks, posting a three-under 69 for a two-shot lead from the Korean duo of An Seong-hyeon and Moon Dong-hyun.

Meanwhile, hot on the heels of Prim are the top-three ranked girls in the field.

While Seo (55th in the WAGR) is in solo second spot, among five players in a share of third place on 73 are Indian Avani Prashanth and Korean Kim Min-sol.

Together with Seo, Kim (12th in the WAGR) was a member of the three-strong Korean team that won the Queen Sirikit Cup at Manila Southwoods in February. Kim also finished runner-up to Thai Eila Galitsky in the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific in Singapore in March.

Having scored a runaway victory in the Queen Sirikit Cup’s individual tournament, Prashanth (82nd in the WAGR) also feels perfectly at home in the Philippines.

A serial winner in his home country, Hsu in 382nd in the men’s WAGR. Winner of last year’s Korea Junior Championship and a member of the Korean men’s team at last year Nomura Cup (Asia-Pacific men’s amateur team championship) in the Philippines, Moon is 429th.

Although his compatriot An is 2,111th in the standings, he arrived at Orchard Golf & Country Club in good spirits having made the cut in this month’s GS Caltex Maekyung Open, co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour and Korean PGA Tour.

FIRST-ROUND SCORES

Boys

69 – Hsu Po-cheng (Chinese Taipei)
71 – An Seong-hyeon (Korea); Moon Dong-hyun (Korea)
73 – Jordan Marcello (Indonesia)
74 – Bruce Kwong (Singapore); Markus Lam (Hong Kong, China); Parin Sarasmut (Thailand)
75 – Hsieh Cheng-wei (Chinese Taipei); Kenneth Sutianto (Indonesia)
76 – Jorge Siyuan Hao (Spain)
77 – Edison Tabalin (Philippines); Teerawut Boonseeor (Thailand)
78 – Hadi Nor Haqeim (Malaysia); Lin Xing-zhi (Hong Kong, China); Jujhar Singh (India); Sukhman Singh (India)
79 – Mohd Farji Ajamal Amin (Malaysia); Shinichi Suzuki (Philippines)
80 – Reshan Akash Algama (Sri Lanka); Jack Murphy (Ireland)
86 – Stussy Shimizu-Shiroma (Guam)
87 – Trey Jacot (Guam)

Girls

68 – Prim Prachnakorn (Thailand)
72 – Seo Kyo-rim (Korea)
73 – Annika Chen (Chinese Taipei); Kim Min-sol (Korea); Arianna Lau (Hong Kong, China); Avani Prashanth (India); Sania Talitha Wahyudi (Indonesia)
74 –Sophie Han (Hong Kong, China); Lin Jie-en (Chinese Taipei); Reese Ng (Philippines); Nishna Patel (India); Pimpisa Rubrong (Thailand)
75 – Wang Xin Yao (Malaysia)
77 – Chen Xingtong (Singapore); Gabie Rosca (Philippines)
78 – Anna Canado Espinol (Spain)
79 – Kaya Senara Daluwatte (Sri Lanka); Jessica Thea Tan (Indonesia)
80 – Perla Sol Sigurbrandsdottir (Iceland)
82 – Belle Yi Ngo (Malaysia); Tyana Jacot (Guam)
96 – Ava Carmela Limtiaco (Guam)

Team Standings

142 – Thailand (Prim/Parin)
143 – Chinese Taipei (Lin/Hsu); Korea (Seo/Moon)
144 – Korea (Kim/An)
147 – Hong Kong, China (Han/Lau)
148 – Chinese Taipei (Chen/Hsieh); Indonesia (Wahyudi/Sutianto)
151 – India (Prashanth/Sukhman Singh); Singapore (Chen/Kwong); Thailand (Pimpisa/Teerawut)
152 – Lam/Lin (Hong Kong, China); India (Patel/Jujhar Singh); Indonesia (Tan/Marcello)
153 – Philippines (Ng/Suzuki)
154 – European Golf Association (Canado Espinal/Hao); Malaysia (Wang/Fajri); Philippines (Gabie/Tabalin)
159 – Sri Lanka (Daluwatte/Algama)
160 – European Golf Association (Sigurbrandsdottir/Murphy); Malaysia (Ngo/Hadi)
168 – Guam (Jacot/Shimizu-Shiroma)
183 – Guam (Limtiaco/Jacot)