Pacto storms ahead, leads by 3

Robert Pactolerin, denied of a chance to lead the rain-scrapped first round, found himself on top two days later as he shot a two-under par 70 yesterday to seize a three-stroke lead over Mars Pucay heading into the final 18 holes of the Konica-UBix Manila Open golf championship at Wack Wack’s east course.

Pactolerin, whose 71 Wednesday could’ve propelled him to the lead had it not been washed out by heavy rains and thunderstorms, rallied with a 34 at backside on a three-birdie splurge to come up with the day’s lone under-par round for a 36-hole aggregate of 143.

That was three shots up on Pucay, who shared the second round lead with Willy de Tomas with 71s but sputtered with a 75 and a 146.

De Tomas had a 76 and slid to third place with 147 in the group of Cesar Ababa, Antonio Lascuña and Elmer Salvador.

Ababa gunned down three birdies at the back to match par 72; Lascuña strung up nines of 37-37, while Salvador blew what had appeared to be a fine round with three bogeys in the last nine holes for a 75.

Unless his pursuers come up with explosive final round charge, the 38-year-old Pactolerin is expected to run away with the top P200,000 purse and a big boost heading into the Philippine Open on Nov. 23.

Over in Hong Kong, Rodrigo Cuello fired a second 63 in as many weeks as he climbed from out of nowhere to joint seventh in the $300,000 Star Alliance Open of the Davidoff Tour.

Cuello, who blew a two-shot lead in the final round in last week’s Hero Honda Masters in India, bucked a bogey start on No. 10 of the par-70 Clearwater Bay course with nine birdies, including four-straight from No. 14 en route to that seven-under 63.

However, Cuello’s 136 total was 8 shots off Arjun Atwal’s 136 as the Indian bet matched Cuello’s 63.

Meanwhile, Cassius Casas’ bid to advance to the third and final stage of the US PGA Tour qualifier hit a snag when he carded a 73 as he hardly moved up the standings in the 77-player field at the Deerwood Golf and Country Club in Kingwood, Texas Thursday. He had a 148 aggregate and was in joint 55th place with two rounds left in the 72-hole tournament.