Masrin stays on top by 1

INDONESIAN-AMERICAN Danny Masrin held fort on another demanding, humid day, matching par 72 to keep the lead in the $60,000 ICTSI Sherwood Hills Classic by a shot over a new pursuer in veteran Dutchman Guido Van Der Valk in Trece Martires, Cavite, yesterday.

The unheralded Masrin birdied the 15th and 18th holes to salvage a 35-37 card and stay at the helm with a two-round total of 140 after Van Der Valk made his move by equaling Masrin’s tournament-best round of 68 on opening day.

The veteran Marvin Dumandan took over from Jun Bernis and Michael Bibat as the best-placed Filipino after carding a 70 to catch Finn Janne Kaske at 142, just two strokes behind the pace. Kaske fired a 71.

“I was playing well when suddenly my game disintegrated,” said the 22-year-old Masrin. “It was very difficult in the afternoon and I lost my patience.”

Ryan Lam signed for a 71 to be in a seven-man logjam at 143, including Japan’s Toru Nakajima, the first and only foreigner to win on the Philippine Golf Tour, who gutted out a 70.

Bibat added a 75 to a 70 on Wednesday and faded five shots behind Masrin, from two at the start of the day.

Van Der Valk, who finished second to Elmer Salvador in the 2009 Philippine Open at Malarayat in Lipa City, had eight birdies in his second round and stayed on course to winning for the first time in the country.

Former Asian Development Tour Order of Merit winner Jay Bayron dropped to a level 144 together with American Samuel Chien after managing a 73. Chien returned a second successive 72.

Bernis, the former national champion still seeking a breakthrough win as a pro, ballooned to a 78 for 148, in the company of Robert Pactolerin, who shot a 70, Antonio Lascuña, who fired a 75, and eight others in the tournament sponsored by ICTSI and co-organized by ADT and Pilipinas Golf Tournaments Inc.

Fifty-eight players made the 36-hole cut. In all, three strokes separated the first 12 players on the leaderboard, ensuring a shootout over the last 36 holes. Five more players are within three or four shots of Masrin.