Casabona-Navarro takes lead into final round of Mountain Creek Open

Sport360 staff 06:32 12/05/2016
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  • Consistent: Casabona-Navarro.

    Spain’s Sixto Casabona-Navarro shot his second successive sub-par round to double his lead to two shots going into the final round of the MENA Tour’s Mountain Creek Open by Golf Citizen.

    Starting the second round on Wednesday one in front, the 27-year-old carded a solid one-under par 71 on the demanding Seve Ballesteros-designed course to reach four-under par for the tournament.

    Venezuela’s Wolmer Murillo, who usually plies his trade on the Asian Tour, was the only other player in the field to have gone sub-par in both rounds. He was two behind at 142 with successive rounds of 71.

    India’s Manish Goyal and Chile’s Antonio Costa shared third place on 143 as Thailand amateur Witchayanon Chothirunrungrueng ended the day four shots off the pace alongside England’s Joe Heraty and Fredrik Lindblom of Sweden.

    With another tidy showing, Casabona-Navarro seems to have strengthened his own belief that he can win his first title on the Tour.

    “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 the man from Valencia, whose best finish on the MENA Tour is tied fourth at last year’s Ghala Open in Muscat.

    “The course is playing tough, but I hit my approaches close to the pin and in the right areas. I hope to have fun tomorrow and keep doing what I’m doing…roll some putts in and we will see where I am coming down the stretch.”

    Murillo 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 be a few shots better, but just didn’t putt that well.

    “If I can get my putter going, anything can happen on Thursday.”

    Thailand’s Chothirunrungrueng, popularly 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, who shot a 72.

    The rising Thai teenage star, who was two-under after his first 14 holes, endured a frustrating finish, dropping four shots, including a double-bogey on the par-3, 16th, in his last four holes.

    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.

    Two bogeys and two birdies highlighted his inward journey, and he said: “I played okay. Made some mistakes, especially the one on the par-5, 17th where I turned a six-foot birdie putt birdie into a bogey six.”

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