MANILA Southwoods marched to the crown virtually unchallenged by traditional rival Luisita in the final round of the seniors tournament of the 72nd Fil-Am Men’s Invitational Thursday in Baguio City.
Southwoods closed out with a 106 for a 463-point total to stave off Luisita, which settled for second with 452 points.
“My rookies delivered,” said Southwoods captain Freddie Mendoza, referring to Jun Plana and Manfred Guangko, who played the seniors event for the first time after suiting up for the regular team for years.
Plana, who’s seen action in the Fil-Am for around 25 years now, was the top gunner for the Cavite-based squad in all four days, closing out with a 29 to emerge as the best scorer in Seniors I.
Judd Roy and Raul Muñoza each shot 26 and Gunagko added 25.
Luisita got 29 points from Chino Raymundo, 28 from Rodel Mangulabnan, 26 from Benjie Sumulong and 23 from Dan Cruz.
“Marty (Ilagan) got his baptism of fire as a rookie. We gave it our best shot. We will come back stronger next year,” Luisita’s non-playing skipper Jeric Hechanova said.
The Alpha Phi Omega Golfers (107-379) ruled the Am-Championship over Srixon-IMG (109-374) at the Camp John Hay Golf Club.
Dugong Bughaw (101-372), Manila Southwoods-2 (105-354) and Megafiber (94-353) completed the top 5.
