SURIGAO braces for a two-title romp and Manila Southwoods resumes its title retention bid starting on Friday in the 69th Fil-Am Invitational Golf Tournament in Baguio City.
Team Surigao I carded 114 points at Camp John Hay (CJH) for a three-day aggregate of 323 and a 17-point lead over Che Lus I in the Fil A contest with Don Petil Ramon Capistrano scoring 29s and former Tourism Secretary Ace Barbers and Lito Camo each carding a 28.
Guam-based Che Lus I got 29s from John Quinata, Jesse Quenga and 28 each from Warren Pelletier and Mike Castro to stay at second spot. Mizuno-Power Systems kept third third spot with 296 after a 110.
In Fil D, Surigao II came scored 94 points for 247 to catch Macquarie Links Sydney, which made 88 for 244 at second spot. They trail leader Waterlympics by only one point.
Jose Cadiz had a 25, Vic See came in with a 24 and Orly Mabutas and Santi Lim added 23 and 22 points, respectively, for Surigao II. Waterlympics had a third day output of 85 for 248.
Edgar Lee made 28 points to lead Forest Hill Palmer to a 98 effort and a 319 total in Am A and shadow by three points San Miguel, which made 96 for 312.
Tiyo Paeng shot a flight best 112 to zoom to a tie for third spot with 311 with Mizuno X-1R (108). Day two leader Benlife fell to fifth after an 88 for 310.
Square and of Compass of Nueva Ecija had big round of 97 points for a 274 for a 29-point lead going into the last round in Am D.
NBI Golf Team 157 carded 76 points for 245—only two off surging Moto, which made 85 points to overtake Cool Jocks and Monterey, which tied for fourth with 241 after a 76 and 78, respectively.
Southwoods, meanwhile, enters the third round carrying a 31- and 36-point lead in the Fil and Am flights, respectively, leads that left the rest of the field fighting for crumbs.
“That is a really big lead and knowing that their players can really play well,” summed Jude Eustaquio, whose Forest Hills trailed by four points Fil Championship second-placer Royal Northwoods.
The Forest Hill golf manager and team captain hopes to get big points from his “big guns”—pint-sized Rupert Zaragosa, who could shoot well at the longer CJH course after two days at the challenging and shorter Baguio Country Club.
“We are not giving up but all we want is a respectable score,” added last year’s individual runner-up, who lost by countback to Joong Hyun Kim of Southwoods.
But with the Japanese duo around—Yuto Katsuragawa and Aguri Iwasaki—and cousins Airdric Chan and Carl Corpus—Southwoods is expected to coast anew to its sixth-straight title.
Southwoods captain Thirdy Escano is confident his wards will play well in the next two days.
“I am 100 percent that we will score at least 145 points,” Escano said. “We are just harvesting what we planted when we started the program some 20 years ago.”
In 1997, Escano started a competitive team with Junjun Plana and Bong Lopez from his old Aguinaldo team that won the Philippine Airlines Interclub. That year, the Robert Sobrepena-led group started developing CJH.
“I am pretty confident with this team, the best [Southwoods] team that could have played here,” added Escano, who also won as many Am Championships, as well.
Southwoods’s longest drought was from 2010 to 2012, the last when Zaragosa debuted for AAV Robros.
“Aidric and Carl will be leaving soon for the United States to study, but we have the young ones from the Am Championship to move to the Fil team. Players like Jeff Jung [13 years old], the couple of 14-year-old [Josh Jorge and Masaichi Otake] and a 15-year-old [Sean Ramos],” Escano said.
Liam Cunningham is “old” at 17, while Lanz Uy is in his early 20s.
Batangas Barakos was at second spot with 241, while Philippine Navy ran third with 231. Forest Hills Nicklaus was fourth with 228 and Razons of Guagua was at the tail with 218.