Pueblo de Oro hangs on in PAL seniors golf

CEBU CITY, Philippines – Surprise pacesetter Pueblo de Oro lost its opening-day fire but held on to the lead as Luisita and defending champion Canlubang threatened to restore order at the halfway point of the 66th Philippine Airlines Interclub seniors’ golf tournament yesterday.

A day after sneaking past the fancied teams with a hot 153-point jumpstart over at Alta Vista, the Cagayan de Oro-based golfers coughed out a 132 in second round played at the Club Filipino de Cebu Golf Club, to see their early six-point lead sliced in half with a 285 aggregate. 

Playing 18 holes back-to-back proved too taxing for the crew of Victor Yuvallos (47), Clifford Celdran (45) and Ed Yap (40) as well as non-scoring Rehy Go (30) as they stumbled on the par-71 course that put the participants’ putting skills to extreme test.

Luisita chopped off three points from Pueblo’s overnight lead as Pepot Iñigo (47), Francis Gaston (46) and Seve Roxas Chua (42) worked to give the Tarlac-based team a 135 for a tally of 282.

Two points farther back at 280 was three-peat-seeking Canlubang, which also checked out with a 135 on the 46s of Luigi Yulo and Dave Hernandez and the 43 of Tony Olives.

Cebu Country Club charged into the Founder’s division lead with a 141 for 282, an output that actually matched that of second-running Luisita in the Championship play. The CCC parbusters are threatening to achieve a rare feat of winning the Seniors trophy while competing at the Founders division.

Per its original gameplan, Pueblo fielded the same four-man lineup as the first day. Their second group – Mike Celdran, Miguel Chiong, Apolonio Roa and Carlos Rubio – was slated to arrive from CdO only yesterday.

“It’s very hard to play two straight days,” said Celdran, whose round was marred by nine bogeys in Day 2.

Pueblo’s upset bid is expected to get stymied in the last two days as its second batch, whose flight from CdO was delayed due to bad weather there, will plunge into action virtually without practice at the venues.

“Our target is third place but if we’ll win it, why not?” said Celdran.

In contrast, the Canlubang Sugar Barons expect a relatively fresher crew in the second half of action.

“We’ve already fielded all our eight players so we’ll pretty much be fresh going to the last two days. Yes, we like our chances,” said Olives.

Ramontito Garcia carded a 49 while Lor Alaan and Roichi Horit each submitted a 46 just before darkness as Cebu Country Club made its big leap.

Alta Vista carded 136 for a second-best 278 while first-round leader Manila Golf plummeted to third with 273 after a struggling 127.