Kempis-Vinluan cops crown

SILANG, Cavite — In golf, there’s no such thing as a sure thing.

Juanito and Juvic Pagunsan bitterly learned this lesson yesterday when they blew a commanding six-stroke lead in the final round and allowed Noli Kempis and Don Erwin Vinluan to post a dramatic one-stroke victory in the P1 million U-Bix Riviera Pro-Am Golf Championship at the pesky Langer course here.

"We were just lucky that the Pagunsans encountered a lot of trouble during the round. And we felt that we were the better team. They hardly talked to each other when their game turned sour early on," said Kempis who, being the pro, gets a bigger purse of P134,248 compared to Vinluan’s P33,562.

Kempis and Vinluan won with a one-over 72 and a four-day total of 299, 15-over for the tournament. The Pagunsans, on the other hand, closed out with a 79 after a third-round 70 for a 300.

Kempis and Vinluan, pro-am partners for the first time, scored an even 35 in the first nine holes while the father-and-son tandem went seven-over with bogeys on the second, fourth, fifth and sixth, a double-bogey on the eighth and another bogey on the ninth. At the turn, Kempis and Vinluan were already up by one.

It was a close battle in the back nine with the pair of Armando Eso and Neil Catalan even grabbing a one-stroke lead after the 13th — only to falter with a double-bogey on the next hole, a 456-yard par-4. They never regained the lead after that and ended tied for third with Felix Fernando and Marlon Dizon at 302.

Kempis and Vinluan were holding on to a one-stroke lead when Juvic, the reigning SEA Games individual champion, birdied the 16th from 25 feet. In that par-five hole, Juvic hit a driver from 260 yards as he tried to reach the green in two. His ball landed on the trap before his father blasted short off the cup.

Kempis and Vinluan bogeyed that hole and trailed the Pagunsans by one heading into the signature 17th, a plunging 156-yard par-3 with its green guarded by eight tiny bunkers. A perfect tee shot by Vinluan led to a five-foot birdie by Kempis and another tie for the lead after a par by the Pagunsans.

On the dreaded 18th, a par-4 that looks more like a par-5, both pros hit decent tee shots for the amateurs to follow. And after Vinluan sent his second shot to the left-side bunker, Juvic committed his biggest mistake of the round - and probably the tournament - when his five-iron shot from 190 yards found a lateral hazard.

Playing four after a drop and an automatic one-stroke penalty, Juanito pitched into the green, at least 15 feet short of the hole while Kempis’ blast rolled three pins past the hole. The Pagunsans eventually scored a double-bogey while Kempis and Vinluan holed out with a bogey from eight feet for the victory.

"Wala, eh. Na-behind lang second shot sa 18th," said Juvic, who settled for a runner up purse of P22,222 for an amateur. His father took home P88,888.