Banares-Dumandan moves ahead by two

SILANG, Cavite — Ruel Banares and Marvin Dumandan regained the lead they seized in the first round but squandered in the next as the resilient duo vowed to keep their two-stroke lead intact this time in their hunt for the U-Bix Riviera Nationial pro-am golf crown.

Flashing their familiarity with Riviera’s Langer course, the club bets teamed up for a one-under par 70 in another punishing day at the hazard-laden layout, wresting a two-stroke lead over erstwhile joint leaders Gerard Cantada and JR Tanpinco with a 54-hole aggregate of 223. Banares and Dumandan earlier shot 79 and 74.

The Cantada-Tanpinco tandem, who shared the halfway lead with the defending champion pair of Raul and Paul Miñsoza, failed to sustain its momentum in the second round and struggled with a three-over par 74, dropping to second at 225 with one round left in the P1.2 million event put up by U-Bix Corp. headed by chair and chief executive officer Bert Bravo and hosted by Riviera, led by president Danny Pizarro.

Overwhelmed by the Banares-Dumandan charge, where the duo fired nines of 33-37 on five birdies against four bogeys, were the Miñozas, who shot themselves in the foot with a 79 to slid to third at 229, six strokes off the pace.

"Since we will be playing them tomorrow, we are in a good position to know where we stand," Banares said. "It will be a very interesting round for the top three teams."

"We can watch them very closely and they can watch us very closely. Two shots are not big numbers but we will try to do our best," said Dumandan, a member of the national training pool.

Other backers are U-Bix Konica Digital Copiers, Epson Printers, U-Bix Riso Digital Duplicators, S-Yard-Bravo Golf, Pivo Praha, Grappa’s, Caffe Appassionato, Gopez Group, Nike Golf (Pacsports), DHL Worldwide Express/WWW Express, Airlift Asia, ESAPSA, Philippine Amusements and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR), Philippine National Oil Co., San Miguel Corp. and Petron.

South Korea’s Pak Sung Mo and Lee Seong Ki scored a 76 to place fourth at 231. They could have tied the Miñozas but were penalized two strokes for playing in the wrong place on 11.

Benjie Magada and partner Dicky Dizon made an 80 to take the next slot at 232, followed by Ramil Bisera and Jay Bayron with 74-233, Jorge Abad and Michael Bibat 79-234 and Armando Eso and younger brother Amado 78-235.