Casas grabs three-shot lead as rains bedevil field

Virtually unheard of in the first two days due to a late finish and a rain-interrupted round, Cassius Casas finally made the kind of noise expected from a top-notch player as he completed a pair of under-par rounds in one day, including a 70 yesterday, to wrest the Philippine Open lead that nobody seemed to have control of.

This time, however, Casas wanted to keep it for good, including the crown worth P1.5 million.

With a three-shot lead over erstwhile frontrunner David Gleeson of Australia, Casas indeed put himself in a position to win the country’s premier golf championship at Wack Wack’s East, a course that continued to bewilder the surviving field, including its favorite son.

"I’m glad to be on top but there’s a lot of players behind," said Casas, one of those stranded by the rains Friday who finished his second round with a one-under 71 in the morning that served as the springboard to his leap to the top of the heap.

He had a 211 aggregate, a pretty solid round over a course that continued to play tough each passing day with its testy pin placements and a playing condition that seemed to get worse with driving rains, sunshine then rains again.

Lost in Casas’ breakaway was Gerald Rosales, who salvaged a 72 at resumption of his second round then finally played the kind of game expected of him as the defending champion shot the day’s best of 69 to vault from 49th to a share of 10th. But he was too far behind to be a contender at 221, 10 strokes behind Casas, and in tie with first day co-leaders Paolo Del Olmo (74) and amateur Angelo Que (79), Danny delos Santos (74) and Mars Pucay (72).

But Casas, one down behind Gleeson at the start of the third round with club bet Gerard Cantada, managed to survive all those as he continued to play with renewed confidence on a restructured swing he had been polishing in the last three months with former national mentor Bong Lopez in an attempt to raise the level of his game a notch higher.

"I’m still not hitting it solidly off the mound, but accuracy-wise, it’s 80 percent," said Casas, the top Filipino shotmaker after Frankie Miñoza whose best finish in this event was third in 1995 at Apo won by Mexican Carlos Espinosa.

Gleeson, whose superb iron game shoved him to the top after 36 holes, sputtered with a bogey right on the opening hole and yielded the lead to Casas on the next which the latter birdied from 10 feet, but gallantly fought back and engaged the two Filipinos in a shootout before regaining a one-shot lead on No. 9 as Casas three-putted and Cantada muffed a five-footer for bogeys.

But the lean Aussie wavered at the back as the pressure mounted, dropping two strokes, including a missed-green mishap on the par 4 18th that marred his 74 and a 214.

"I had some bad shots and just didn’t make the putt," rued Gleeson, adding that although a three-shot deficit can be overcome in this kind of layout, he would need to shoot in the 60s to have a chance. "I just have to hit it underneath the hole since it’s impossible to make birdies on downhill putts."

Cantada rolled in a swashbuckling 50-foot uphill birdie putt on the final hole that drew cheers from the gallery that ringed the 18th green as he matched Gleeson’s 74 and stood four shots off Casas at 215.

The burly debuting pro, however, remained cool and unaffected by the surge of Casas and by his stumble, no thanks to a bogey and a double-bogey mishap on Nos. 16 and 17, respectively, that marred an otherwise fine round.

Cantada had one spectacular shot on the par 4 8th, a blast from about 20 yards while yelling "one-time," the ball bouncing once onto the green before disappearing into the cup.

Birdie.

But that proved to be a shortlived share of the lead with Gleeson as he and Casas fumbled with bogeys on the next before Cantada staggered with another bogey on the 10th before coming up with a slew of pars. He sank an 8-foot birdie putt on No. 15 to go even, but missed the green on the next for bogey and a near-bunker to bunker shot on the difficult par 3 17th yielded a 5 on his card.

Jason Dawes, another Australian, shot a 71 for 217 followed by Danny Zarate (74-218), Aussie David Bransdon (76-219), and Rey Pagunsan (71), Chi Bing Lam of Singapore (72) and Canadian Rick Gibson, who all had 220s.

The event is co-presented by Casino Filipino and San Miguel Corp. and supported by Mitsubishi Motors, Unilab, the Herma Group, Hope, Metrobank, Philtec Label, Wallem Shipping, Mizuno, PLDT, Cinnabon, Citgo, Unilever, Solahart, U-Bix and Caffe Appassionato.