Davaoeños set the pace

CEBU, Philippines - Davaoeños took control halfway through the Aboitiz Invitational 2012 with Elmer Salvador and Tony Lascuña sharing the lead at two-under-par at the Cebu Country Club here.

Defending back-to-back champion Jay Bayron, another player, who learned his trade at the Apo Golf and Country Club in Davao City, is on solo third, two strokes behind the co-leaders.

Salvador and Lascuña carded identical rounds of 69 and 71. They also hold the top two spots in the order of merit on the Philippine Golf Tour. Lascuña is number 1 followed by Salvador.

The players found it difficult to deal with the very dry conditions that made the fairways and greens extra hard.

Marvin Dumandan, another pro from Davao, told The FREEMAN that it was difficult to deal with the super hard fairways and it was hard to get your ball to stay on the green.

Bayron, who won the title via come-from-behind fashion last year, fired another round at even-par 71 on the course that normally plays par-72, but was shortened for this tournament.

Joint fourth are Jerson Balasabas, first day co-leader Scott Barr of Australia and Ebarra Quiachon. They are at one-over-par for the tournament.

Balasabas fired rounds of 73 and 70 while Barr made 69 and 73 and Quiachon had 71 and 72.

Randy Garalde is on solo fifth with a total of 144 strokes on rounds of 73 and 71.

The rest of the top ten were all tied at 3-over-par for the tournament or at 145. They are Michael Bibat (74-71), Richard Sinfuego (70-75), Mars Pucay (73-72), and American Greg Moss (75-70).

Australian Unho Park, who was also in the four-way logjam for the lead after the first day fired six-over-par 77 yesterday to match his opening round of 69 and now shares the 13th position with ten others including Clyde Mondilla of Bukidnon and Cebuano Charles Hong.

Hong, who grew up at the Cebu Country Club winning a string of junior titles and also a club title, failed to duplicate his opening round of 70 as he carded five-over-par 76 yesterday.

His two-day total of 146 still puts him within range of the leaders as he hopes to make up for lost ground on the last two days of this $65,000 event bankrolled by Aboitiz Equity Ventures.

Another Cebuano, who made the cut, was Danny Zarate with a two-day total of 148 on rounds of 76 and 72. He is tied with Dumandan at 6-over for the tournament.

Standing at 8-over-par are several notables.

Angelo Que, three-time winner in the Asian Tour, fired rounds of 78 and 72.

Also in the same spot are top Filipino pro Frankie Miñoza, who shot identical rounds of 75 strokes, just like countryman Artemio Murakami.

Ryan Bulloch of Australia, who leads the order of merit in the Asian Development Tour (ADT), which has also sanctioned this tournament, is with this group shooting rounds of 72 and 78.

Jose Angelo ‘Gio’ Gandionco was the only amateur to make the cut shooting rounds of 77 and 73.

Miguel Tabuena, the youngest Filipino professional at 17 years old, barely made the cut with his nine-over-par total firing rounds of 79 and 72. A total of 53 players shooting nine-over-par and better made the cut.

Notables among those who failed to make the last two rounds were Singapore’s Quincy Quek, winner of the Philippine Amateur title in 2009, who finished at plus 10. He opened the tournament with 82 strokes, but came back strong yesterday shooting one-under-par 70, but missed the cut by one.

Eric Deen, the reigning club champion of the host club fired rounds of 74 and 80, while Lloyd Jefferson Go made 77 and 78 and Gen Nagai had 78 and 78. All three amateurs did not make the cut.

Action starts at 7:20 a.m. today.