Saso pulls out of SEA Games golf team

MANILA, Philippines - Redemption-seeking Philippine golfers will shoot for podium finishes in the 2017 Southeast Asian Games without one of their top female bets, Yuka Saso.

According to SEA Games task force head Tom Carrasco, the 2016 world junior champ Saso couldn’t join the seven-member golf team for the Aug. 19-30 meet anymore so Junia Louise Quintanilla Gabasa was tapped to take her place.

“Yuka Saso backed out and was replaced by a reserve,” Carrasco told The STAR yesterday. “(Saso) prefers to play in other event, reportedly in Canada and Japan.”

Gabasa will join Lois Kaye Go and Harmie Nicole Constantino in vying for honors in the women’s individual and team competitions in Malaysia.

Carl Corpus, Jolo Magcalayo, Luigi Paolo Wong and Rupert Zaragoza III will carry the fight for Phl in the men’s side.

The Filipinos shotmakers will seek to bounce back from their medal shutout in the 2005 SEAG in Singapore, where Thailand swept the four gold medals disputed.

Phl last struck gold in the biennial SEAG in 2013 with lady golfer Princess Superal topping the individual play and annexing the team mint in partnership with Katrina Pelen-Briones, and Clare Amelia Legaspi.

Meanwhile, the mechanism for the draw of the SEAG football competitions host Malaysia intended to implement was thumbed down by the Asian Football Confederation yesterday.