Juvic Pagunsan sizzled with an eagle-aided seven-under 64 to leapfrog to a share of fourth place, three shots off unheralded Siddikur of Bangladesh halfway through the Brunei Open on Friday in Bandar Seri Begawan.

Putting behind a monumental error in the Del Monte leg of the ICTSI tour last week where he was disqualified with two other frontrunners, Pagunsan was simply awesome on his way home, firing a birdie on No. 1 then hitting an eagle on the par-5 No. 2. He actually reached eight-under after back-to-back birdies from No. 5 but dropped a stroke on the eight to settle for 31-34.

Along with his 70 in the first round, Pagunsan tallied a 134 to tie Malaysian Ben Leong and South African Jbe Kruger, who turned in a 64 and 68, respectively.

Siddikur carded a 67 for a 131 and a two-shot lead over Adam Groom of Australia (68-133) and erstwhile solo leader Thammanoon Srirot of Thailand, who settled for a 71-133.

Gerald Rosales shot a 70 and safely made the cut at 139 while Gene Bondoc, the top Filipino scorer with a 68 in the first round, limped home with a 73 and barely made it to the weekend play at 141.

Artemio Murakami and Mars Pucay also bounced back to advance with the former firing a 67 after a 74 and the latter matching par 71 for identical 141s while Tony Lascuna made it with a second straight 71 for a 142.

Rosales 8 shots behind
Jennifer Rosales got off to a shaky start as she shot a four-over 76 to trail co-leader Taiwan's Yani Tseng and Australia's Katherine Hull by eight shots at the start of the Women’s British Open at Birkdale in Southport, England.

After bogeying holes No. 12 and 13 – her third and fourth holes after starting in the back nine – Rosales never recovered her ground  as she grappled with testing windy conditions.

She only hit eight fairways to underscore her struggle off the tee.

Though she birdied the par-5 17th hole, Rosales yielded another stroke when she bogeyed the first hole on the frontside. She nailed another birdie on the third hole – her 12th hole – but it turned to be her last hurrah as she bogeyed three of the four holes.

Tseng, a two-time Major winner, and Hull shot a 68 to finish one ahead of two South Koreans – Amy Yang and Sun Young Yoo, American Brittany Linciome and Anne-Lise Caudal of France.

Michelle Wie was another to finish birdie, par and shot 70, while world No.1 Shin Jiyai raised her hopes of repeating her 2008 win at Sunningdale with a 71.