Flawless Lascuña moves up by three

BINANGONAN, Rizal — Tony Lascuña proved unrelenting in his hunt for birdies that came like rain for the second straight day as he shouldered himself past Dan Cruz and Elmer Salvador with perfect 12 points to wrest the lead in the third round of the P1 million Eastridge Invitational golf tournament here yesterday.

It was Lascuña’s second straight bogey-free stint at the difficult Eastridge Golf Club course made tougher by the unpredictable putting surface which the dusky Davaoeno shotmaker bucked with superb iron shots and steady stroke that netted six birdies.

Lascuña, who finished third in the Order of Merit race won by buddy Richard Sinfuego in the 12-leg First Gentleman Golf Circuit, also scored perfect 8 points Wednesday and hiked his 54-hole output to 25 points for a three-point lead over Cassius Casas heading into the final round of this event, the first pro tournament in seven months that had seen three different leaders in as many days under a unique scoring format.

And it seems no lead is safe in this kind of system.

Casas, the first round leader who slipped to seventh with a disastrous windup Wednesday, fought back with an early run of birdies then capped his comeback with a tap-in birdie on the 18th hole to match Lascuña’s output and grabbed second place with 22 points.

Atoning for his uncharacteristic foldup Wednesday where he dropped five points in the last three holes, the 36-year-old Casas birdied four of the first eight holes and three of the last six that more than made up for his two three-putt bogeys on Nos. 9 and 10.

Benjie Magada came up with 10 points, nearly duplicating his 11-point production in the second round, which was actually 12 behind seven birdies against two bogeys. But he had a payback of one point in the first round following a woeful start.

With 21 points, Magada stood four points behind Lascuña in this event sponsored by Mega-Pro Resources International and Overseas Professional Achievere International, Inc. owned by Japanese members at Eastridge.

Cruz and Salvador fell as quickly as they jointly held the halfway lead with the former tumbling down to fifth with 3 points and 17 overall and the latter falling with a thud on a minus 9 score on his card littered with pickups.

Carito Villaroman scored 7 points to grab fourth place with 18 points.

An eight-foot birdie putt on No. 2 hinted at the coming of another explosive day for Lascuña, whose radar-like approach shots set up birdie opportunities inside four feet. He was actually looking for a 13-point splurge but got too excited with a four-foot eagle putt staring at him on the 18th which he muffed. — Dante Navarro