Forest Hills, Eastridge enter Fed League semis

MANILA, Philippines - Forest Hills and Eastridge took the two automatic semifinal berths after topping the eliminations despite dropping their final round assignments even as Orchard and Riviera also advanced to the playoff rounds of the 2010 Men’s Federation Golf League.

Forest Hills finished with 15 points on a 6-2-0 win-loss-draw record in Group 1 for the No. 1 spot while Eastridge wound up at 5-2-1 for 14 points and the No. 2 seeding as the topnotch in Group 2.

Valley, Northwoods, Orchard and Riviera took separate routes in nailing their respective berths in next week’s quarterfinals.

Riviera completed a sweep of Forest Hills and rode on defending champion Sta. Elena’s spoiler of a win over Alabang for the other playoff slot in Group 1. Riviera went to the last round a point behind Alabang which needed a draw against Sta. Elena to get a shot at advancing.

With an extra point, Riviera finished at 11 points and Alabang got stuck at 9 after losing 2-3 to the out-of-the-running Sta. Elena.

Eastridge also lost its final game to Southwoods, 1-4, and gave Orchard the chance to clinch the No. 2 spot overall. But Orchard wound up dropping its match against last year’s losing finalist Tagaytay Highlands, 1-4, and settled for a quarterfinals stint.

The top two teams with the best record after the eliminations advance to the semis outright while the next four teams go through the playoff stages.

Orchard plays Riviera, with the winner facing Forest Hills in the semis while Valley and Northwoods, which took the two spots in Group 3, collide in the other quarterfinal pairing with the winner up for a semis duel with Eastridge.