Étienne Papineau and Alena Sharp both find themselves in second place in their respective divisions after two rounds of the 2023 Pan American (Pan Am) Games at the Price of Wales Country Club in Santiago, Chile.
Papineau followed up his opening round 63 with a 1-under 71 on Friday and is two-shots back of Sebastian Muñoz of Colombia who shot a 6-under 66 for the second straight day to move to 12-under for the tournament.
“Obviously not as good as yesterday but we’re still in it, just some bad luck on par 5’s today on 14 and 9 outside of that it was ok, I guess. I will work on some things on the range but we’re still in it, obviously not the round I wanted today but as I said we’re still in it and there’s 36 more holes to play so I’ll do my best and then we’ll see after Sunday,” said Papineau.
Papineau of St-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, Que. began his round on the back nine on Friday and exchanged two birdies and two bogeys for an even 36. Finishing up on the front nine, Papineau opened with two pars, followed by an eagle on the third hole and a run of five consecutive pars before dropping a stroke on the ninth hole to finish with a 71.
Myles Creigton of Digby, N.S. responded with a solid 4-under 68 on Friday to improve to 3-under for the tournament and sits 12th, carding six birdies during his round.
“I really struggled yesterday, just wasn’t hitting it great and shot as good as I probably could have shot…was all over the place and this course exposes you a little bit if you’re just a little off so worked on it a little bit yesterday and came out with a better round today. I got off to a bad start with a bogey and fought pretty hard from there with not my full game but was able to get around today,” said Creighton.
Carlos Ortiz and Abraham Ancer of Mexico and Dylan Menante are in a three-way tie for third after two rounds and sit three shots back of Muñoz at 9-under.
Men’s Top 5 Standings following the second round of the 2023 Pan Am Games
| 1 | Sebastian Muñoz | Colombia | 66, 66 | -12 |
| 2 | Étienne Papineau | Canada | 63, 71 | -10 |
| T3 | Carlos Ortiz | Mexico | 71, 64 | -9 |
| T3 | Abraham Ancer | Mexico | 68, 67 | -9 |
| T3 | Dylan Menante | United States | 66, 69 | -9 |
Sharp of Hamilton, Ont. finished her second round with a 1-over 73, dropping one stroke to sit 4-under and is tied for second with Valery Plata of Colombia. Plata recorded a second consecutive round of 2-under 70, both Sharp and Plata are five shots back of Sofia Garcia of Paraguay who leads at 9-under. Garcia followed up an opening round 65 with a 2-under 70 on Friday. Alexandra Swayne of the Virgin Islands and Maria Uribe at tied for fourth at 2-under.
Selena Costabile of Thornhill, Ont. shot a 4-over 76 on Friday and sits 21st at 9-over.
Women’s Top 5 Standings following the second round of the 2023 Pan Am Games
| 1 | Sofia Garcia | Paraguay | 65, 70 | -9 |
| T2 | Alena Sharp | Canada | 67, 73 | -4 |
| T2 | Valery Plata | Colombia | 70, 70 | -4 |
| T4 | Alexandra Swayne | Virgin Islands | 70, 72 | -2 |
| T4 | Maria Uribe | Colombia | 69, 73 | -2 |
Golf joined the Pan American Games program at Toronto 2015. At Lima 2019, Team Canada consisting of, Austin Connelly, Mary Parsons, Joey Savoie and Brigitte Thibeault won the bronze medal, in the mixed team event, its first Pan Am Games medal in golf.
Santiago 2023 features individual events only in golf with 32 men and 32 women competing over 72-holes of stroke play. Saturday’s third round will begin at 8:00 a.m. local time, 9:00 a.m. ET/6:00 a.m. PT.