La Salle golfers pull away

TAGAYTAY – La Salle sustained its first round romp with an equally impressive 8-4 victory at the close of the foursome and fourball matches yesterday, giving the Archers a whopping nine-point lead heading into the deciding singles in the La Salle-Ateneo Match Play 2007 at the Tagaytay Midlands yesterday.

Miko Alejandro kept his unbeaten run in the Ryder Cup-style format event by sweeping his four matches in the alternate-shot and best-ball duels to emerge the most prolific scorer in the La Salle side, which took the opener, 8.5-3.5.

With a pair of 4-2 wins in another wind-blown day here, the Archers padded their overnight five-point lead to nine on a 16.5-7.5 count going into the 18 singles matches today.

It was a virtual repeat of the two teams’ 2005 clash where the Archers surged to a 17-7 lead after two days and cruised to a 23-19 win despite losing six of the 18 singles.

“We can attribute our fast start to dynamic balancing of our pairings. We practice and simulate games plus of course the desire and heart to beat the Ateneans,” said La Salle team captain Freddie Mendoza.

The 19-year-old Alejandro teamed up again with Justine Limjap in the morning foursome and the resilient duo fought back from two holes down after No. 13 to win three of the last five holes and eke out a 1-up victory over Yoyong Velez and Jovi Neri.

The steady pair also clobbered the Iggy Clavecilla-Manoling Chan tandem, 4 and 3, in the afternoon best-ball duel while SEA Games silver medallist Anya Tanpinco and Kim Hong repeated over the La Salle tandem of Lovelyn Guioguio and Leana Farrales, 2 and 1.

Those wins came on the heels of King Stehmeier and Marco Olives resounding 6 and 5 victory over the tandem of national champion Anthony Fernando and Jeric Hechanova.

Two matches ended in all square, including Archers Bones Floro and Sammy Sy against Junjun Plana and Mari Hechanova and Ateneo’s Gab Atienza and John Gobing against Francis Gaston and Raffy Garcia.

The tournament is organized and hosted by Belle Corp. and Tagaytay Highlands.

La Salle took three matches in the morning foursome (alternate-shot), halved two and dropped one to post a 4-2 win and sit on a 7-point cushion heading into the second four-ball (best ball) duel.

But the Archers proved fiercer with the Alejandro-Limjap and Stehmeier-Olives tandems spearheading the charge. Marcel Puyat and Marty Ilagan, whose teamup produced two victories for Ateneo in the first day, bounced back from their morning setback to Raffy Garcia and Olives by thumping La Salle’s Chucky Hong and Miko Yee, 5 & 4.