Ex-champs battle for club title

CEBU, Philippines - Eric Deen and Jovi Neri will meet today in a 36-hole matchplay event to determine the 2010 club champion of Cebu Country Club.

The club championship of the previous is played around this time of the current year with the top 16 after the 36-hole stroke play elimination round will play matches until two men are left standing.

Deen and Neri are no strangers to the championship being both former holders of the crown.

Deen won it three-in-a-row for 1997 to 1999 and won it again in 2004. Neri won the 2001 club championships.

Neri finished the qualifier as the second seed and won by default over George Hong in the first round before scoring a 2 and 1 victory over Ricky Brown in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, he stopped Jufil Sato, 5-up with 4 holes to go.

Deen qualified fifth for the club championships and beat Mack Michael in the first round, 5 and 4 he then coasted to a 4 and 2 win over Jon Joseph Alvarez in the quarterfinals before a close 1-up win against Mark Dy in the semifinals.

The class B championship will be played between second seed Evans Tuimaliwan and fifth ranked Kiddy Limchao, Jr. 

Tumaliwan scored a 3 and 2 win over Toby Florendo in the quarterfinals then trounced Marvin Mendoza 6 and 4 in the semifinals.

Limchao won over Keisuke Tatara 2-up in the quarterfinals and topped Peter Po Jr. in the semis 4 and 3.

Topseed Andrew Si will play Henry Dy for the class C title while Naotsugu Isobe will face Rhoudie Tiu for the class D plum.

The senior’s championship will be a battle of two Japanese players – Koichi Horii and Masatsugu Ochiai.

Tony Jackson has already claimed another title for the super seniors division, which is for players aged 70 years old and above.

Qualifying tournament

Ricky Brown and Bayani Garcia topped the qualifying tournament for the annual club and class championships.

Brown won the overall lowest net award with a two-day total of 134 strokes while Garcia had the lowest gross with a two-day total of one-under-par 143 on rounds of 68 and 75.

Masahisa Kawakami won the class A title with a two-day total of 136 while runner-up honors went to Jovi Neri with 138.

Emmy Tesalona topped class B with 138 strokes edging golf chairman Frederic Chiongbian in the countback. Chiongbian settled for the runner-up honors.

Eric Borja won the class C title with a two-day total of 135 strokes while Alvin Tan finished as runner-up also with 135.

Naotsugu Isobe won the class B title with 145 strokes while Antonio Baltazar finished as runner-up with 146.

Peter Po Sr. topped the senior’s class with 138 strokes while Masatsugu Ochiai was runner-up with 143.

Francis Zosa ruled the super senior’s class with 134 followed by Danny Deen as runner-up with 141.

The seedings for the club and class championship was based on the gross scores of the players. (FREEMAN)