Texan on a Roll
1st November 2003American world trios champion Dino Castillo lived up his billing as one of the pre-tournament favourites by grabbing the midway lead at the 36th Singapore Open Masters final at Victor’s Superbowl. The Texan crowd favourite, however, had to do it the hard way.
After his first three games (181, 163, 169), the 32-year-old pro-shop manager was floundering near the bottom of a field of 42 Masters qualifiers. But Castillo soon got into the groove from Game 4 and averaged 256 in his next five games (247, 255, 254, 248, 278) to charge right to the top of the standings with a 1,795 showing (224 average).
“I was trying a few things in my first few games as I felt the lanes were still fresh,” said Castillo, who is one of four bowlers who rolled a perfect 300 game during the week’s MQs. “But I found myself all over the place and I was getting splits in every direction. Then I noticed South Korean Lee Sung Il was going very far right, so I tried to follow that. In game three, I hit a seven-bagger and I decided to go even further right. Once I was locked in, I knew I was going to make a big run. And well, it turned out to be a really big run.”
While Castillo had a slow start, local favourite Remy Ong led the field after the very first game with a 259. Halfway through the first flock of 8 games, the Asian Games champion remained among the early pace-setters and lurked in fourth (863). At that point, Lee Sung Il of Korea (963) was heading the field after a 299 in game four. The Korean saw his hopes of claiming $10,000 vanished, when pin 7 refused to fall on his 12th ball.
Lee and Ong stayed in first and second after 6 games, but Castillo jumped from behind the pack to grab the lead. Korean Lee, who was only the 31st best qualifier is currently second 24 pins behind leader Castillo, while Malaysia’s Zulmazran Zulkifli (1739), Taiwan’s Kao Hai Yuan (1714), Singapore permanent resident Tom Hahl (1704) and hometown favourite Ong (1700) are second to sixth respectively.
“It’s still anybody’s game,” said Singapore ace Ong, who is currently 95 pins behind leader Castillo. “The conditions are tough for everybody and when the lanes are tough, spinners like Kao will have a good chance as the margin for error are not as big for spinners. I am not worried about the media and public expectations. You can bowl well and not win. And I have bowled badly before and won. I just want to manage my own expectations. I’ve put myself in a position where I got a chance to win and let’s hope the effort pays off.”
Asian Games champion Ong has failed to win a title since claiming the Santa Claus Open almost a year ago at this same venue. While local fans will be pinning their hopes on the national bowling captain tomorrow, his teammates are also within striking distance of the leaders. Shaun Ng, who represented Singapore in this year’s AMF World Cup, is currently eighth (1682) and Asian Games trios champion Sam Goh is 11th (1,658) respectively. Alvin Kwang, the top local qualifier, failed to start as he was ill, while second-best local qualifier Faizal Chew (1597) is currently 22nd.
Top qualifier Jason Belmonte (1509), however, had a bad day and is struggling in 32nd position, some 286pins behind the leader. Last month’s American Zone number one ranked Andres Gomez also failed to make an impact and is 33rd position, a further 2 pins behind Belmonte.
The second block of eight games will commence at noon tomorrow and the top six will enter the step-ladder finals, where the winner walks away with $10,000. Earlier in the day, Singapore’s Jazreel Tan was crowned Girls Youth champion, while Philippines Markwin Tee was the Boys Youth Champion. A total of 377 bowlers from 16 countries had entered the $100,000s Singapore Open. The women masters finals is ongoing at press time.