Semikawa salvages late birdie to advance into weekend

Taiga Semikawa, making his first DP World Tour debut, survived a late scare to make the cut at the weather-affected Singapore Classic.

The 22-year-old carded a much-improved three-under-par 69 at the Laguna National Golf Resort Club to finish on a three-under-par 141 total, just one shot above the projected cut line.

Semikawa began the day promisingly with a pair of birdies on the first and third holes before gaining two more strokes at number 10 and 13 to move to four-under for the day.

However, he was pegged back by a double bogey that nearly cost him a place in the weekend rounds.

Thankfully, Semikawa bounced back swiftly with a birdie on the par-three 17th before closing with a par.

"Initially, I thought two-under would have been enough to progress. But the cut line eventually risen to three-under," said Semikawa.

"So to birdie the 17th right after squandering two shots on 16 was a massive relief indeed!

"Now that I was assured of playing the next two days, I hope I'll be able to finish strongly. I've been trying to play all four rounds consistently in the past three PGA Tour events, but somehow I flopped on the final day.

"My goal is to make as many birdies as I can and keep moving up on the leaderboard."

Another Japanese, Aguri Iwasaki faced an anxious wait as he currently sits one shot below the cut line.

The 25-year-old last-minute entrant mixed four birdies with a double bogey to be two-under overall with five holes to complete.

It was the end of the road for Rikuya Hoshino and Masahiro Kawamura after both could only muster 71 and 73 respectively to finish tied-81st at one-under 143.