By Adrian Flores

CARMONA, Cavite?Lee Jeong-hwa played great golf for 14 holes but sputtered in the last four. Still, she held on to score a one-under-par 71 and found herself into championship contention in the 47th ICTSI-Philippine Ladies? Amateur Open held at the Manila Southwoods Golf and Country Club.

It seemed that Lee Jeong-hwa would have the day?s best round as she gunned down five birdies on an uncharacteristic windless morning. When winds came in the final four holes, she dropped successive shots with bogeys on nos. 15 and 16 then double-bogeyed the 18th.

?I lost my touch completely coming home,? said the vacationing 14-year-old Lee Jeong-hwa, who practiced every day for two months in preparation for the Open. This will be her fourth title, if ever, and the first major success in four years.

Her 36-hole total of an even-par 144 at the Legends course gave the Manila Southwoods bet, who is on her second year at Haksan Middle School in Busan, Korea, the overall lead by one over the 145s of the surging Dottie Ardina and Louise Manalo of International Container Terminal Services Inc. team and Korean Lee Shine.

Chihiro Ikeda, the defending champ seeking a repeat of her successful run last year, virtually bombed out of the competition with another 78 for a two-day aggregate 156. She three-putted three times and it spelled doom for the ICTSI star.

?It?s a tough world out there. My irons were awful and my putting was equally terrible,? was all Ikeda could say.

The pint-sized Ardina got off to a decent start with a one-under after nine, which was capped by a four-foot birdie on the fifth hole. She gained another stroke on the 10th, where her second shot from a 25-yard bunker on the left rolled into the cup.

The 15-year-old Ardina, whose best finish in the Open was a seventh in 2007, carded a bogey-free, two-under-par 70?one of just three under-par scores yesterday. She would have had a better round if not for six missed birdie opportunities.