Miñoza pounds record 61

Frankie Miñoza continued his relentless charge at the Singapore Island Country Club’s Bukit course with another birdie-binge for a course-record 10-under par 61, thrusting the ace Filipino shotmaker into a two-stroke lead over US Masters champion Vijay Singh halfway through the Caltex Singapore Masters yesterday.

It was vintage Miñoza for the second straight day as the two-time Asian PGA Tour No. 1 played a near-flawless round he highlighted with an impeccable putting stroke on the last nine holes en route to shooting the lowest score in the seven-year history of the Davidoff Tour.

"I just kept things going. I did not expect this one and I cannot believe I shot 61. On the first nine I wasn’t hitting my driver well but I hit my irons very good. And my putter is working today. I had 10 putts on the back nine (when he shot 29)," said Miñoza, who considers the par 71 layout one of his favorites, having played here in 1975 as a jungolfer and having won the individual crown as an amateur in the Putra Cup in the late 70s. He also won the Rolex Masters in 1998 here and was runner-up in two Singapore Opens.

After 36 holes, Miñoza stayed as clear as the air in this island-state with no bogey to slow him down as he fell short by just one birdie to complete a mind-boggling 18-under total in the first two days of this $850,000 event, the seventh leg of the European Tour which stakes world ranking points.

Counting his 64 in the first round, Miñoza, 40, now has a 125 aggregate, 17-under par and two strokes ahead of the most fancied player in the fold — Singh, who shot a 63 to virtually arrange a weekend shootout with the Filipino shotmaker, who also won the Philippine Open crown for the first time and the Kirin Open in Japan in the same year he won here.

"This is only my second tournament since December and it was good to get a score like this," said Miñoza, who finished 37th in the Japan PGA Tour last year.

With a 127 total, Singh, winner of last week’s Malaysian Open, will have Miñoza as partner in the third round today, hoping to cut the Filipino down to size and complete his back-to-back bid after his thrilling playoff victory over Irish Padraig Harrington in Kuala Lumpur.

But when Minoza is hot, not even the likes of Singh could perhaps cool him down.

Minoza, playing with renewed confidence after a poor 71st place finish in Malaysia, started the second round with three birdies in the first five holes, including a monster 35-footer on the par 5 No. 4. Then after a birdie-par opening at the backside, it was classic Minoza once again as he strung up five straight birdies, capped by another 20-footer on the par 3 No. 14, before holing out with another birdie on the 18th that sandwiched a two-putt par on the par 3 17th.

Singh, tied with Minoza at the start of the day, tried to match the Filipino’s amazing round but the talented Fijian shotmaker could only string nines of 32-31 for that 63.

Thai ace Prayad Marksaeng shot a 63 but still stayed five shots off Minoza at 130 while Maarten Lafeber of Holland and Frenchman Olivier Edmond stood at 131 after a 64 and a 68, respectively.

First round joint leaders Padraig Harrington of Ireland and Warren Bennett of England had 69s for a share and dropped to a share of sixth place at 132 with Mark Mouland of Wales, who had a 66.