Sugar Barons wrest four-point lead

Rolly Viray: Cangolf reliable

BACOLOD CITY—With the grizzled Rolly Viray playing like Canlubang’s pillar for the second round, the Sugar Barons on Thursday pooled 142 points at tree-lined Binitin in Murcia town to ease out front of defending champion Luisita halfway through the 34th playing of the Philippine Airlines Senior Interclub championship.

Viray, the Cangolf manager and former national champion, birdied the 17th hole to salvage a five-over-par 75 worth 49 points and anchor the Barons, now with a 36-hole 281, as the Luisitans groped for form all day for a 138 for 277.

“Whenever you’re ahead, you should be happy,” Cangolf nonplaying skipper Tony Olives said, although he, understandably, did not want to divulge what kind of a team he will be coming up with for the third round on Friday also at Binitin.

“We will try to score our best [on the third round],” he said without elaborating even if he has Tommy Manotoc and Abe Rosal at his disposal and could try to win the event right there. “We will definitely not overload. We will take a cautious approach.”

Raffy Garcia scored 50 points and Benjie Sumulong 46 for Luisita, but the Tarlac-based squad got just 42 from Rodel Mangulabnan.

Still, Olives’ counterpart at Luisita, Jeric Hechanova, was happy with the way his boys played, considering that they trailed by as many as 14 points in the front nine after Viray went level for his first 10 holes.

“We rose from the dead,” Hechanova said.

Negros Occidental and Cebu Country Club, the other teams in the championship division, lagged behind with 271 and 266 points, respectively.

Scoring for Negros were Jimmy Yusay (47), Chris Infante (45) and Stephen Paduano (44) while CCC drew 51 from Eric Deen, 46 from Kwang Seok-kim and 44 from Carl Almario.

CCC, however, lost a player to injury when Nonoy Tirol hurt his right leg while climbing out of the bunker on the eighth hole.