By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
TARLAC CITY — Thomas Plumb blasted a flawless eight-under-par 64 to immediately stamp his class and emerge as an early title contender at the start of the 2026 BingoPlus Philippine ADT Open at the Luisita Golf and Country Club here on Wednesday, June 17.
Playing in the afternoon flights, the 27-year-old English player was solid throughout, carding eight birdies with nines of 33 and 31 to take a one-stroke lead over Chinese Taipei’s Su Ching-Hung.
“It was a good day from the start, really. I managed to hit every single green out there, which kind of made the day a little bit easier,” said Plumb, who is chasing a breakthrough title in the ADT this year.
“I got off to a fairly slow start at the start, and then the birdies just kept coming after that. It sounded like a cliche, but I just played pretty well. It was perfect,” he added.
After collecting three birdies on the front side, Plumb turned up the heat and strung together three consecutive birdies from the 10th hole before capping his impressive round with additional birdies on Nos. 14 and 16.
Su, who completed his round a few minutes ahead of Plumb, had a share of the lead within reach but stumbled with a lone bogey on the 18th after missing the green.
Malaysia’s Marcus Lim, Japan’s Naoki Sekito, Korea’s Jaeil Kim and Macau’s Kelvin Si were two shots off the pace with identical 66s, while Hong Kong’s Hoho Yue and United States’ Brent Ito posted similar 67s.
Sean Ramos, meanwhile, led the Filipino charge along with James Ryan Lam, Fidel Concepcion, Jeffren Lumbo and amateur Shinichi Suzuki after carding 68s with Singapore’s Nicklaus Chiam and Argentina’s Franco Scorzato.
Ramos, tipped as one of the Filipinos to watch in the $100,000 event, lived up to expectations by highlighting his round with a bunker-shot eagle on the par-5 12th hole to trail Plumb by four shots. He added three birdies and carded just one bogey on the eighth.
“I started cold and then I was hitting okay to mediocre shots. I was just two-putting my way down and then I just started to get hot after I made bogey on the eighth,” said Ramos.
