By Adriano Flores

DAVAO City—Luisita saw its lead go down to only five as Canlubang made a huge rally despite the muddy course conditions due to the intermittent afternoon rains halfway through the 23rd seniors’ edition of the Philippine Airlines Interclub golf tournament played at the Apo Golf Club.

Playing in a marquee pairing, spitfire Tommy Manotoc fired a sizzling 55 points via the Molave points systems to lead Canlubang’s 142 for the day and 282 aggregate. Canlubang moved to within striking distance of Luisita, which managed a 129 to go with its first round 158 for 287.

Alabang jumped to third place with 264 (137-127) followed by Manila Golf 250 (130-120) and Texas Golf Club 245 (139-106).

Manotoc, who turns 60 in July, hit 15 of 18 greens and had 18 putts, plus four birdies as against three bogeys overall in a place (Apo), where he loves to play because of its natural, all-local grass which he calls “very charming.”

“I looked up the scores and saw that nothing was going right after nine holes.  That’s when I knew I had to score more to save the team.  Now, we have a good game in our hands,” said Manotoc, who adjusted his shots to compensate to the mud and water patches on the fairways of the Apo layout.

The condition, in fact, was so tough that only Manotoc breached the 50-point barrier.  Luigi Yulo, also the team manager, made 44, while Bing Bunye contributed 43 for that 142.  Rookie Jose Mari Hechanova’s 42 did not count in the four-to-play, three-to-count format.