Salvador grabs the solo lead

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu Country Club showed its fangs once again yesterday as Elmer Salvador seized the solo lead after the second day of the Aboitiz Invitational 2011.

Salvador, who hails from Davao and currently second in the order of merit, fired his second straight round of one-over-par 71 strokes for a two-day total of 142.

American Jonathan Moore is at solo second with 143 strokes on rounds of 72 and 71.

Davaoeños Cassius Casas and Rufino Bayron share the third spot with Antonio Asistio II with totals of 144 strokes. Casas took the lead halfway through yesterday’s round when he went two-under-par starting off from the back nine.

Casas sprayed birdies on the 11th, 14th and 18th but lost his footing on the second nine as he bogeyed hole number 1 before shooting a double-bogey 7 on the 2nd.

He also bogeyed the 5th and 6th before closing with one more on the 9th. Casas shot 71 on the first round and made 74 yesterday.

Rufino, brother of defending champion Jay, fired 73 on the first day and shot 71 yesterday while Asistio also had rounds of 71 and 73.

Five players are a stroke behind with totals of 145 and this bunch includes Jay Bayron, who shot 74 yesterday after making 71 on the first round.

Others in the group are Sri Lanka’s Mithun Perera (74-71), Michael Bibat (73-72), Anthony Fernando (73-72), and Marvin Dumandan (70-75).

The cut was at plus 13. A total of 50 players made it to the final two rounds including Charles ‘Chuckie’ Hong, a rookie pro, who learned the ropes of the game at Cebu Country Club where he started as a junior golfer.

Hong scored 76 of the first day and made 77 yesterday to make only his third cut in eight tournaments this year.

Five other players are at 146 led by veteran Richard Sinfuego (74-72), Matt Docking (73-73), Ernie Rellon (74-72), Jonel Ababa (73-73), and Albin Engbino (73-73).

The champion of this $65,000 event backed by Aboitiz Equity Ventures will be taking home $11,000.

This is considered as the biggest-ever professional golf event in Cebu.

Cebuano Danny (Cabajar) Zarate also made the cut shooting identical rounds of 75. He is tied with Artemio Murakami, one of the notables among those playing in the final two days.

First round leader Arnold Villacencio of Davao could not find the form that gave him the only round under par in this tournament during the opening day where he made 69.

Yesterday, Villacencio limped home with a 12-over-par 82 strokes to drop to 11-over-par for the tournament.

The course was toughened up for this event and two par-5 holes, 7 and 11, were converted into par-4s.

The most common complaint among the players was dealing with the hard and sleek greens.

Seeing action in the tournament are players of the Philippine Tour and the Asian Development Tour.

Four players retired from the tournament on the first day due to injuries while two others withdrew yesterday. (FREEMAN)