Delos Santos sizzles with eagle-aided 66 but falls by 8 in Casio World Open

MANILA, Philippines — Justin delos Santos missed churning out a more spectacular round with a flubbed chance on the par-5 18th but his eagle-spiked 66 put him back at joint 10th after 54 holes of the Casio World Open still led by American Chan Kim in Kochi Prefecture in Japan Saturday.

Delos Santos worked on his putting stroke overnight, finishing with 28 putts after struggling with 32 in the second round although his three-day aggregate of 202 dropped him eight strokes off Kim heading to the final 18 holes of the penultimate leg of this year’s Japan Golf Tour.

Delos also flourished with his long game, missing just three fairways and birdied Nos. 2 and 9 before scoring an eagle on the par-5 10th. He went on pick up more strokes on Nos. 12 and 16 but holed out with a par after birdying the closing hole for the first two days.

Juvic Pagunsan, meanwhile, settled for a second straight 72 and stayed way behind at joint 64th at 212.

Kim birdied the last three holes to fire a 64 and hold of a fast-charging Akyuryu Iwasaki, who blitzed the Kochi Kuroshio Country Club backside with six birdies for a 30 and a 63. But Kim held on to the lead at 194, one stroke ahead of Iwasaki, who set up a final round shootout with a 195.

Yuta Ikeda and Satoshi Kodaira matched 64s for joint third a 198.