Lesser lights take charge in windy Summit Point opener

LIPA City, Batangas , Philippines — In an early battle of power and control in tough conditions, unfancied Erwin Arcillas and Dino Villanueva came in unruffled by the wind that blew the early bids of a number of favorites, carding identical 67s in varying fashions to share the lead with Thai Sutijet Kooratanapisan in the $100,000 Summit Point World 18 Challenge yesterday.

A year after shooting a 66 and upstaging an elite field in the opener of The Players Championship here, Villanueva was at it again, gunning down six birdies against a bogey and rescuing two pars to preserve a 33-34 card and tie Kooratanapisan and Arcillas at the helm, one stroke ahead of Elmer Salvador.

Villanueva, whose best finish in this year’s Philippine Golf Tour Asia was joint 31st in Aboitiz Invitational last Sept. in a campaign marred by two missed cuts, actually missed grabbing the solo lead again with flubbed birdie putts inside nine feet in the last three holes, miscues that should toughen up the 34-year-old journeyman from Cagayan de Oro as he steps up his drive for a breakthrough win in the next three days.

“I missed birdie chances in the last three holes, failed to read my line of putts right,” said Villanueva, whose best finish in the PGT was sixth in Negros last August.

Arcillas, who missed the cut by one in last week’s CAT Open, leaned on his superb iron game in the morning group that saw him miss just two greens, one he saved on No. 3 and the other he bogeyed on the 18th. He three putted No. 7 for the other bogey in a card marked by seven birdies, including three straight from No. 8.

“I played pretty good in windy conditions,” said Arcillas, who missed nailing his first win with a playoff loss to Australian David Gleeson at ICTSI Luisita Championship, the kickoff leg of this year’s PGTA last April. He also rued his three flubbed eagle putts on the reachable par-5s off solid 3-wood second shots from 250 yards, including a six-footer on No. 5, a three-footer on No. 9 and a four-footer on the 14th.