Neri foils Juvic’s bid for double

Cebuano Jovi Neri foiled Juvic Pagunsan’s bid for a double victory when he emerged as the overall champion of the recent national grand finals of the Samsung Putting Challenge at the Mt. Malarayat Golf and Country Club in Lipa, Batangas.

Neri made it as the fifth qualifier in the eliminations topped by Pagunsan but made just 15 putts in his final nine holes to crown himself the overall winner of the event held at the practice greens of Mt. Malarayat.

Pagunsan lost by just one stroke with his final nine of 16 and settled for the men’s division plum. He, however, dominated the field in the Samsung Amateur Tour with rounds of 73-67 to beat Jay Bayron and Mark Lopez by six strokes.

The other winners were Carmelette Villaroman for ladies and Sergio Lim for seniors both with 41 putts and Marlon Hager for the junior division with 43.

The Samsung Putting Challenge had Mario’s Restaurant, Wilson, Gatorade, Tokyo Tokyo, Microtel, Custom Clubmakers, Rogin-E and Dunlop Golf as sponsors with radio stations Killer Bee, Jam 88.3, Wave 89.1, Magic 89.9, 99.5 RT and 103.5 K-Lite as official media partners.

Joining Pagunsan and Villaroman as champions in the showdown of leg winners in the Amateur Tour were Jolan Miñoza, Marco Olives, Carlitos Magno and Tess Staub.

Miñoza, nephew of local star Frankie, nipped Zaldy Villa in a sudden-death playoff after both finished with similar 158 aggregates to win Class A; Olives beat Bob Paterson by two for Class B with an 84-84-168 while Magno’s 86-89-175 won him the Class C plum by one over Jojo Lee.