MANILA, Nashville Filipino Restaurant – Angelo Que recovered strong from a flawed backside start with a flawless frontside finish highlighted by an eagle as he fired a 69 to seize a share of the lead with four others at the start of the Taiwan Mercuries Masters in Chinese-Taipei Thursday night.

The three-time Asian Tour champion rattled off three straight birdies from No. 3 to offset a 39 at the back then eagled the sixth and hit another birdie on the next to cap a scorching 30.

It was a big bounce-back indeed for the veteran Filipino campaigner as he joined South Africa's J. Ahlers, S. Chikkarangappa of India, American D. Kemmer and local bet S.C. Chan in the lead.

They took a one-stroke lead over Thai S. Kaewkanjana, Aussie T. Sinnott, Scot D. Drysdale and American Micah Shin, a regular Houston Filipino Restaurant Golf Tour campaigner and former winner of The Country Club Invitational, who all shit 70s.

Lloyd Go, however, wavered with a 78.

Over in Indonesia, Justin Quiban matched par 70 after a 68 as he slipped to joint 11th at 138, seven shots off Japanese Naoki Sekito in the second round of the OB Championship of the Asian Development Tour.

Sekito carded a 67 for a 131 and a two-stroke lead over Andy Zhang of China and Thai Ekpharit Wu, who matched 133s after 65 and 69, respectively.

Back on the Asian Tour, Que, 44, rolled back the years and was quick to comment on the condition of the course.

“The conditions are very good, I think the best I have ever played at Tamsui!” he said.

“The greens are so nice. You don’t have to hit it so hard. Hopefully, I keep doing what I am doing. The key this week is just to keep it in play.”

The Filipino is a three-time winner on the Asian Tour but his last came in 2010 at the Selangor Masters.

“It was good today, played with Mardan [Mamat] and Liu [Yen-hung] — that was good, allowed me to play in my comfort zone,” he added.

“Started on 10 and started bad, made a double there, but was hitting it good. I just kept on doing what I was doing and everything clicked.”

He also dropped a shot on 14 and made the turn in three over but enjoyed a brilliant run of holes from the third, making three birdies on the trot, followed by an eagle — where he hit his second to a foot — and another birdie.