CEBU, Philippines - Bacolod City – Cebu Country Club went all out on the final day of the 63rd Philippine Airlines Interclub Golf Tournament and managed to pull into the top three of the second-ranked Founders division, which ended at the Bacolod Golf and Country Club in the nearby town of Murcia.
The Cebuanos had their best day of the four-day event shooting 126 points yesterday and finished behind Del Monte and Manila Southwoods, two former Championship division teams that have been relegated to the Founders group.
Ramontito Garcia, skipper of CCC, told The Freeman that they gave it their all on the last round after a poor third round that put them 12 points off the pace.
“We gave it our best and we finished third behind two teams that were from the Championship division last year,” he said.
Charles Hong, who flew back to Bacolod the other night after attending a wedding in Manila, led the team yesterday with 33 points. Hong is a product of the CCC jungolf program and later became a mainstay of the La Salle Golf Team. He is now reviewing for the Civil Engineering board examination.
Also counting for the team total in the five-to-play, four-to-count format was veteran Carl Almario, who is nursing a back injury, shooting another round of 32 points while Garcia made 31 and last to count was 14-year-old Gio Gandionco, who shot 30 points.
The tournament uses the PAL Points or Stableford Scoring System.
Replacement player Jojo Tiongko fired 23 points and did not again count for the total. CCC scored a four-day total of 466 points (117-116-107-126).
The other members of the CCC team were LJ Go, Bayani Garcia, Jovi Neri, Mark Dy, and Marko Sarmiento.
Del Monte, which was at third place going to the final round, shot 128 points yesterday courtesy of Jun Sub Park (36), Noel Langamin (34), Leonard Lofranco (31) and either of the 27s of Ondoy Mondilla and Julius Bautista.
The team’s four-day total is 473 on rounds of 117, 120, 108, and 128.
Manila Southwoods scored only 117 points yesterday and finished with a total of 469 to take second place after shooting 108, 134, and 110 in the first three rounds.
Negros, which was at second spot after the third day, failed to find its mark yesterday and finished with a total of 461 points.
Mactan Island Golf Club finished sixth with a total of 437 points on rounds of 103, 113, 102 and 119.
Bart Vergara led the team yesterday with 31 points followed by Junjun Cabajar with 30 and the duo of Fernando Mondares and Jufil sato with 29 apiece. Hiro Hasegawa shot 19 and did not count.
Alta Vista Golf and Country Club had its biggest day in the tournament scoring 112 points yesterday to finish with a total of 394. Edsel Tan led the team once again yesterday shooting 33 points while Dennis Canoy added 29, emir abutazil had 26 and skipper Victor Gocela had 24. Enrico Solon made 23, which did not count.
CHAMPIONSHIP
Canlubang ran away with the overall title shooting a total of 544 points on rounds of 137, 129, 137 and 141.
Second place went to The Country Club backed by ICTSI with a total of 522 points (134-134-124-130).
Alabang came in as a very comfortable but far away third finishing with 416 points on rounds of 107, 110, 95 and 104.
The Sportswriters and Friendship division teams were still playing as of press time last night.
The event was presented by platinum sponsors Airbus, Boeing, 105.1 Crossover and Radio Mindanao Network. Major sponsors are Action Asia, GE Aviation, MTV Philippines, People Asia and Royal Caribbean.
The corporate backers were Business Mirror, Philippine Graphic, www.philstar.com, Sabre Airline Solutions/Sabre Travel Network and Resort World Manila. Century Park Hotel, DWWW 774 AM, Panay News, Master Card and Thales Aerospace are minor patrons. (FREEMAN NEWS)