Two Filipino junior golfers emerged victorious at the end of the Kids World Golf Championship 2018 Malaysia held from December 17 to 21, 2018, at the Tanjong Puteri Golf Resort in Johor, Malaysia.
Masaichi Otake and Burbery Zhang went home as champions in the boys’ 15-18 and girls’ 13-14 divisions, respectively. The Fil-Japanese Otake submitted a three-day total of 228 (78-75-75) to prevail by three strokes over his nearest rival. The Grade 10 De La Salle Zobel student trailed by one stroke going to the last day but proved steadier by submitting the best score on the last day of play to run away with the victory.
Zhang, a 14-year-old Grade 8 student from Brent, on the other hand, dominated her division with a three-day total of 237 (73-82-82) to register a very impressive wire-to-wire win.
Francis Andre Lanuza, a De La Salle Zobel Grade 9 student, submitted a three-day total of 228 (79-73-76) for fourth place in the boys’ 13-14 division, Gabie Rosca turned in 248 (84-87-77) for fourth in girls’ 11 division; and Bhuvas Nagpal booked a 244 (82-84-78) also for fourth in boys’ 11 division to complete all podium finishers for the 32-man Philippine contingent.
The top-2 finishers in each division get an automatic slot to the 2019 USKG World and Teen World Championship to be held in Pinehurst, North Carolina, in July 2019.
Other Filipino bets who played were Rald Arthur Sarmiento, Joaquin Andres Gomez and Jermaine Melosantos in boys’ 15-18; Gwynn Torres in girls’ 15-18; Annika Chua in girls’ 13-14; Miguel Sebastian Roque, Santino Diokno, Jose Leonid Rico, Tyler Zamuco, Joaquin Estepa and Emmanuel Escalada in boys’ 13-14; Vince Tiamsic and Andrew Chua in boys’ 12; Jamie Camero in Girls 12; Alexa Tan in girls’ 11; Patrick Tambalque in boys’ 10; Andie Arbatin, Celine Abalos and Reese Ng in girls’ 10; Armand Copok in boys’ 9; Aenzo Suliak, Geoffrey Tan and Scott Ng in boys’ 8; Cassy Arbatin, Nicole Gan and Angelie Chua in girls’ 8; and Jacob Gomez in boys’ 7 under.
The annual participation of the country’s junior golfers to this event is through the coordination and efforts of The Junior Golfers League and its president and founder, Ms. Chona de la Paz.