BAGUIO CITY – Surigao has two teams that are in a very good position to take top flight honors even as Manila Southwoods start the second half of their title retention bids in the Championship flights as the 69th Fil-Am Invitational Golf Tournament goes to the penultimate round tomorrow December 14.
Team Surigao I goes to the Camp John Hay golf course and produced 114 points for a three day aggregate of 323 and still carries a 17 point lead on Che Lus I, which came out with the same output.
Amazingly, both teams have identical output for those who counted – a pairs of 29s and 28s. Surigao had 29 from Don Petil and Ramon Capistrano and 28s from former Tourism secretary Ace Barbers and Lito Camo. On the other hand, the Guamanians got 29s from John Quinata, Jesse Quenga, while Warren Pelletier and Mike Castro chipped in 28 each.
Their fifth man, however, Edgardo Lopez of Surigao making 20 and Ed Montenegro of Che Lus marking 23.
Mizuno – Power Systems is still at third spot with 296 after a 110.
In Fil D, Surigao II came in with 94 points for 247 to catch on with Macquarie Links Sydney which made 88 for 244 at second spot that is only one off three day leader Waterlympics.
Jose Cadiz had a 25, Vic See came in with 24, while Orly Mabutas and Santi Lim added 23 and 22 points, respectively, as they made the big move in said flight with a round remaining.
Waterlympics had a third day output of 85 for 248.
Edgar Lee made 28 points to lead Forest Hill Palmer to 98 and 319 total in Am A.
That is now seven off first round leader San Miguel which made 96 and 312 that is one up on two teams and two on another.
Tiyo Paeng shot a flight best 112 to zoom to a tie at third spot with 311 along with Mizuno X-1R which made 108. Day two leader Benlife fell to fifth spot after an 88 for 310. Square and of Compass of Nueva Ecija had big round of 97 points for a 274 and a whopping 29 points lead going to the last round in Am D.
NBI Golf Team 157 carded 76 points for 245 which is just two off a surging Moto which made 85 points to overtake two other teams, Cool Jocks and Monterey which are tied at fourth with 241 after a 76 and 78, respectively.
Meanwhile, Southwoods goes to the third round carrying a 31 and 36 point leads in the Fil and Am flights, respectively, apparently leaving the others fighting for the second and third spots, already.
“That is a really big lead and knowing that their players can really play well,” summed Jude Eustaquio as his Fil Championship squad of Forest Hills is lodged at third spot, four off second running Royal Northwoods.
The Forest Hill golf manager and team captain hopes to get big points from his “big gun”, the pint sized Rupert Zaragosa, who could shoot well at the longer Camp John Hay course after two days at the challenging and shorter Baguio Country Club.
“We are not giving up but all we want is a respectable score,” added last year’s individual first runner-up, who lost by count back to Joong Hyun Kim of Southwoods and where he shot a five under for 41 points in the opening round at CJH, the tournament best.
But with the Japanese duo around – Yuto Katsuragawa and Aguri Iwasaki – and cousins Airdric Chan and Carl Corpus – it is expected that Southwoods will be coasting for the title, its sixth straight again. This will match the six straight the Carmona, Cavite based parbusters had when they debuted in 1997 until 2002.
Southwoods captain Thirdy Escano is confident his wards will play well in the next two days where he expects a sub-par performance. “I am 100 percent that we will score at least 145 points,” he said.
“We are just harvesting what we planted when we started the program some 20 years ago,” said Escano. In 1997, Escano started a competitive team with Junjun Plana and Bong Lopez from his old Aguinaldo team that won the PAL Inter-club. That year, the Robert Sobrepena-led group started developing John Hay.
“Aidric and Carl will be leaving soon for the United States to study but we have the young ones from the Am Championship to move to the Fil team. Players like Jeff Jung (13 years old), the couple of 14 year olds (Josh Jorge and Masaichi Otake), and a 15-year older (Sean Ramos),” said Escano.
Liam Cunningham is “old” at 17, while Lanz Uy is in his early 20s.
Batangas Barakos is at second spot with 241, while Philippine Navy is third at 231. Forest Hills Nicklaus is fourth with 228 and Razons of Guagua is at the tail with 218.
AIDRIC SHIMMY. Aidric Chan reacts as he putts for a par at the Baguio Country Club. The 17-year old, the top senior high school golfer from Ateneo, will again be a big factor in Manila
Southwoods quest for a sixth straight crown as action shifts to the longer Camp John Hay course on Friday.
By Fil-am Media
Yuto Katsuragawa prepares for his shot. Contributed photo
