Luisita hangs on as Southwoods closes in

BAGUIO — Luisita came through with a better team score in the second round at the short but tricky Baguio Country Club layout but still saw its lead sliced down by Manila Southwoods as the rivalry continued in the 74th Januarius Fil Am Invitational.

After a 102 in the first round, Luisita put in a 104 anchored on the 30 of Abe Rosal, with Benjie Sumulong adding a 29, Chino Raymundo a 25 and Ferdie Barbosa a 20 in the five-to-play, four-to-count format.

Manila Southwoods tallied 105 points in a strong charge after a 97 on the first day. Raul Miñoza paced with 30 followed by Jun Jun Plana’s 26, Theody Pascual’s 25 and Judd Roy’s 24 that hiked their output to 202 halfway through the fight in the premier championship division.

“We survived another tough day at BCC. Fortunately, we are still up by four points going to the last two days,” said Jeric Hechanova, Luisita’s non-playing captain.

Southwoods’ performance was okay with skipper Freddie Mendoza, who said that the team will have a different approach from hereon.

In the Am Championship, Manila Southwoods Team-2 (123-227), showed a depth of talents as three players scored 30 points or more to wrest the lead over Srixon-IMG (108-226).

Joseph Tambunting carded a two-over 71 worth 34 points to lead the way.