Filipino golfer Justin De Los Santos has given himself a chance to register his first top-10 finish of the season after bouncing back strongly from a lacklustre second round in the weather-hit BMW Japan Golf Tour Championship Mori Building Cup.
The 27-year-old was challenging for the lead at one point when he birdied eight of his opening 14 holes, but a pair of late bogeys on holes 16 and 17 saw him settle for a third-round six-under-par 65 on Saturday.
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That result placed De Los Santos in a share of seventh on five-under-par 208 as the third-round play was halted due to darkness with only six players in the clubhouse of the Shishido Hills Country Club.
Halfway stage leader Takumi Kanaya kept himself at the summit on 11-under with eight holes remaining, two ahead of Keita Nakajima who had seven holes to play.
Organisers were hoping to get the tournament back up and running after Friday’s second round could not be because of heavy rain.
However, the resumption of the second round this morning was further delayed for a further two hours.
The third round did not start until 2.20 pm local time, with the leaders’ flight only teed off at 4.10 pm.
The penultimate round is scheduled to resume at 6.30 am on Sunday, and with the sunny weather forecast for the rest of the day, the organisers are trying to complete a 72-hole play.
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De Los Santos remained upbeat despite the two late dropped shots preventing him from finishing the day higher on the standings.
“Unfortunately, the last three holes didn’t go my way. But it’s still a good round considering it’s not an easy course to put something low here,” said De Los Santos who shot a pair of 70 and 73 for his first two rounds.
“Overall, I’m happy with where I am. At the start of the day, I would probably say no if you asked me if I could shoot six-under.
“Takumi is playing good golf, so I just have to play my game tomorrow and see where it takes.”
Day 2 Report:
Australia’s Anthony Quayle responded superbly to his opening double bogey with a hat-trick of birdies to keep pace with the leaders before the second round was suspended due to inclement weather.
Quayle battled both strong winds and rain to regain three shots in succession from the fourth hole at the Shishido Hills Country Club to sit one-under-par for the day through nine holes and tied for fifth with his four-under-par overall.
Ren Yonezawa, who completed just six holes, held a one-shot lead over Takumi Kanaya, whom he shared the first-round lead with, at seven-under-par overall.
Yonezawa endured a roller-coaster start as he sandwiched a pair of birdies in between two bogeys in the opening four holes.
Kanaya failed to back up his birdie on the fifth hole, dropping two shots in a row after bogeying the ninth and 10th to sit one-over-par for the day through 11 holes.
South Korea’s Song Young-han carded a 69 after mixing two birdies with a bogey to share the clubhouse lead with Keita Nakajima, who returned a 70.
Kensei Hirata, who won the Gateway to The Open Mizuno Open last week, underlined his determination to win his second title in as many weeks by firing a 67 to move into a share of provisional fifth.
Quayle, still chasing his JGTO breakthrough, was pleased with how things panned out for him and readied himself for a long battle tomorrow.
“I got off to a bad start with wind gusts and I made double on the first hole. The wind was sort of really blowing and the rain was kind of getting heavier, so I was sort of thinking, oh, man, we’re in for a pretty long day today,” said Quayle.
“But I consolidated pretty well. The next couple of holes played really nicely, and then a couple of parts dropped on four, five and six, which was good.
“I think it’s supposed to be really wet tomorrow, so we could play potentially more than 18 holes tomorrow, which will be pretty challenging in that sort of weather.
“So hopefully we can have a bit of a rest this afternoon and then prepare for tomorrow would be ideal.”
