Marko Sarmiento tops Cheling Garcia golfest

CEBU, Philippines – In the tournament honoring the memory of his grandfather, Marko Garcia Sarmiento showed that he indeed got the golfing genes by shooting the lowest gross in last Saturday's Cheling Garcia Cup played at the Cebu Country Club.

Sarmiento fired identical nines of 34 strokes to finish with a gross four-under-par 68.

Jet Hofer shot 61 strokes and won the lowest net honors.

The class A title went to Jufil Sato with a net score of 62 followed by Vergara with a net score of 65.

The class B plum went to Wayne Congmon with a net score of 63 while Ernesto 'Dodong' Siguan finished one stroke behind to claim the runner-up honors.

Noel Ybañez, who once preferred to be behind the scenes to support his son in the junior golf competitions is now the one winning trophies as he ruled class C with a net score of 63 strokes. Runner-up honors for the class went to Marcelo 'A lot' Tan with 64.

Beverly Stafford topped class D with a net score of 69 after pulling past Patricio Go in the countback. Go settled for the runner-up honors.

Edgar Chiongbian scored a net 65 to win the seniors' crown with Vicente Sy shooting net 68 taking the runner-up honors.

Cheling Garcia was a former president of the Cebu Country Club.

His family is holding the annual tournament in his honor. This used to be part of the monthly medal schedule of CCC, but this year it became a stand alone event.-NLQ (FREEMAN)