Spain’s Sixto Casabona-Navarro is primed to honour the memory of the late Seve Ballesteros after replicating his first-round performance by shooting another sub-par round to consolidate his lead going into the final round of the Mountain Creek Open by Golf Citizen on Wednesday.
It was five years ago this week Ballesteros passed away aged just 54.
Starting the day one in front, the 27-year-old Spaniard carded a solid one-under 71 on the demanding Seve Ballesteros-designed course to reach four under for the tournament, a good two-shots clear of Venezuela’s Wolmer Murillo, who usually plies his trade on the Asian Tour.
India’s Manish Goyal and Antonio Costa of Chile shared third a further adrift on one-under as Thailand’s Witchayanon Chothirunrungrueng ended the day three shots off the pace alongside England’s Joe Heraty and Fredrik Lindblom of Sweden.
Spain’s Sixto Casabona-Navaro leads by two shots with a round to play in Thailand.
It was Casabona-Navarro who strengthened his belief that he we can win his first title on the MENA Golf Tour with another tidy showing.
“Again I played a solid tee-to-green game and putted well. Made two great up and downs — on the fourth and seventh — and that kept the momentum going,” said Casabona-Navarro.
“The course is playing tough, but I hit my approaches close to the pin and in the right areas, which made things easier.
“The thinking is to have fun and keep doing what I’m doing, roll some putts in and see where I am coming down the final stretch,” said the Spaniard, whose best finish on the MENA Golf Tour being tied fourth at last year’s Ghala Open in Muscat.
Venezuela’s Murillo, who carded back-to-back 71s, felt he could have done better had his putter been on form. “I played very well and very happy to be in this situation. It would have been nice to have a few better, but just didn’t putt that well.
“If I can get my putter going anything can happen on Thursday,” said the 35-year-old Venezuelan, who will go out with Sixto Casabona-navarro in the final group on Thursday at 11.10am (local time).
Thai Chothirunrungrueng, affectionately known as ‘Zoom’, returned a second-round 74 to stay in the lead in the amateur division at level par, four shots ahead of India’s Rayhan Thomas.
The rising Thai star, who was two-under after his 14 holes, endured a frustrating finish, dropping four shots, including a double-bogey on the par-3, 16th, in his last four holes, but still kept his hopes alive of posting a strong finish.
Young Thomas responded to an early bogey with an eagle on par-4, fourth which was followed by a birdie on the next, but dropped shots at the seventh and ninth meant he negotiated the front nine in level par.
Two bogeys and two birdies highlighted his inward journey. “I played okay. Made some mistakes, especially the one on the par-5, 17th where a six-foot birdie putt birdie ended up being a bogey six,” he said.
Elsewhere, the English duo of Daniel Owen and Lee Corfield, joint second overnight, slipped to tied eighth after posting an identical 75 as their compatriot Joe Heraty carded a 69, the best score of the day, to move to joint fifth.
An initiative of the Shaikh Maktoum Golf Foundation, the MENA Golf Tour was created in 2011 with the aim of developing golf in the region. It is affiliated to R&A, the worldwide golf governing body based in the home of golf, St Andrews, and the Arab Golf Federation and enjoys the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) status.
Multiple European Tour starts, including the Omega Dubai Desert Classic, the Hassan II Trophy and the Maybank Championship Malaysia in addition to full playing privileges on the Sunshine Tour and exemptions into the Final Stage of the Asian Tour Q-School for the leading three professionals are some of the added incentives for the MENA Golf Tour members.
