Salvador fires 67, leads by 1

Elmer Salvador gunned down eight birdies on the way to a 5-under-par 67 yesterday and a one-shot lead over three underdogs after the first round of the ICTSI Tagaytay Midlands Challenge.

The winner of the rich Aboitiz leg of the Asian Development Tour in Cebu three weeks ago, Salvador finished birdie-par-birdie to move ahead of Rolando Marabe, Anthony Fernando and Elmer Saban  with the next big gun closest to the lead lying another two shots back.

Edward Reyes, Nilo Salahog and Randy Garalde all shot 69s, with Jay Bayron, who is chasing a second title this year,  in a six-man group that checked in with 70s.

Antonio Lascuña and Angelo Que assembled 71s like Miguel Tabuena and the veteran Mars Pucay. Jessie Balasabas, another non-winner who has shown vast improvement of late, was also in Que’s group.

“I putted well today and hit it quite solid,” the 43-year-old Salvador said in Filipino.

Saban, the former caddy at Apo Golf like Salvador and a lot of others in the field, was bogey-free in a 34-34 card, while Marabe opened up with a bogey 5 but gunned down five birdies the rest of the way.

Que said he would need a couple of 67s in the last two rounds to have a shot at winning, ruing a bad day on the greens.

“My driving was solid but I had a difficult time putting because I couldn’t read the greens right,” said the 2008 Philippine Open champion, who was second to Salvador at the Cebu Country Club.

Former Philippine Open champion Cassius Casas and Michael Bibat fired 73s to join a nine-man group together with Marvin Dumandan and the veteran Robert Pactolerin.

The other backers of the event are Nike Golf, Srixon, Custom Clubmakers, Pacsports, Cleveland Golf, Callaway, Ping, Mizuno, Empire Golf and Sports Shop, FootJoy, Titleist, Sharp and BMW.