Cruz, Salvador take charge as Casas slips

BINANGONAN, Rizal — Dan Cruz and Elmer Salvador came out virtually unscathed from a day-long struggle on the unpredictable putting surface of the Eastridge Golf Club course as they toppled Cassius Casas atop the leaderboard with identical 7 points to share the lead halfway through the P1 million Eastridge Invitational tournament here.

Cruz, 42, bucked a bogey start by gunning down four birdies in the next six holes, which he used as a springboard to jump to the lead with 14 Stableford points and head the first set of survivors in the four-day event played on this mountain-top course and under a unique scoring format.

The soft-spoken Salvador let his irons and putter do the talking in piling up points from his birdie-splurge to match Cruz’s 36-hole output of 14 points as they led Tony Lascuna by one, Danny delos Santos by two and the tandem of Carito Villaroman and Benjie Magada by three.

"Mahirap basahin ang putts, lalo na ung malalapit dahil iba ang allowance pag nakaharap sa bundok at iba din pag nakaharap ka naman sa lake," said the 42-year-old Cruz, who gave away a point early on a flubbed 3-foot par putt on No. 1 but gained two points from each birdie on Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 7.

Casas, whose superb 8-point output in the first round sparked hopes of an explosive campaign from the talented former Philippine Open champion, nearly blew a running 7-point score after 13 holes as he dropped five points in the last three holes in an uncharacteristic foldup by one of the best players in the fold.

His double-bogey on the par-4 16 from a strange four-putt mishap cost him 3 points before yielding two more points with bogeys on the last two holes. Casas settled for two points for 10 as he slid to seventh place, 4 points behind Cruz and Salvador.

Lascuna scored perfect 8 points in another punishing day at the up-and-down layout, ramming in four birdies in a no-bogey stint. He birdied Nos. 2, 4, 9 and 10 and preserved his solid round by rescuing pars on Nos. 12 and 17.

"Paramihan ng birdie ito, pero kailangan steady pa rin ang palo," said Lascuna, who finished third in the Order o Merit race won the buddy Richard Sinfuego in the 12-leg First Gentleman Golf Circuit.

All the fancied bets in a field of 110 advanced to the next round where the top 30 players after 54 holes making it to the final round of this championship sponsored by Mega-Pro Resources International and Overseas Professional Achievere International, Inc. owned by Japanese members at Eastridge,

Delos Santos churned out 5 points for a 12-point aggregate for fourth while Villaroman fired five birdies but fumbled with a bogey and had a pick-up for 6 points and an 11-point total.

But it was Magada who scored the day’s most points – 12 — on seven birdies against two bogeys as he caught up with Villaroman at fifth place after starting the day at minus 1.