Lascuña catches leaders with gutsy 73

TAIPEI—Filipino veteran Antonio Lascuña battled through wind and rain for a one-over-par 73 Friday and a share of the halfway lead with four others at the Mercuries Taiwan Masters.

Also atop the leaderboard are Baek Seuk-hyun of South Korea (73) and Chinese Taipei trio Wang Shih-jui (73), overnight leader Lien Chi-wei (77) and Tsai Chi-huang—the only player to break par with a 69—for one-under-par 143 at the $600,000 Asian Tour event.

“Like I said before, you need to be very patient in this course,” said the dusky Lascuña, a one-time winner on the Asian Tour. “Today was a test because it was raining and the wind was blowing from all directions.

“I just kept calm and it worked in the round. It wasn’t an easy day but you must expect all these type of conditions when you come to Chinese Taipei.”

Angelo Que, who, like Lascuña had a 70 in the opening round, faltered to a 75 and trailed the leaders by 2 shots at 145.

Elmer Salvador turned in a 74 and lay six strokes off the pace at 149.

But three other Filipino entries— Miguel Tabuena (152), Jay Bayron (152)  and  Mars Pucay (153)—missed the halfway cut at 150.

Taiwan’s Lin Wen-tang, a five-time Asian Tour winner, Bangladeshi Siddikur, Malaysia’s Danny Chia and Kalle Samooja of Finland shared sixth spot at 144.

Sporadic showers swept the Taiwan Golf and Country Club in the morning and strong gust of wind with speeds of over 30 kilometers per hour continued for the whole day as Typhoon Jelawat prepared to hit the island Friday evening.

Despite the testing conditions where a tree was uprooted, Baek managed to hang on and put himself in strong position of winning his first Asian Tour title.

“It wasn’t fun because is very windy and at any time, the wind can change direction,” said Baek. Asian Tour News