Neri-Balangauan holds lead

CEBU, Philippines - The tandem of Jovi Neri and Baltaire Balangauan held the clubhouse lead for the first round of the 31st Coral Invitational played at the Cebu Country Club with a total of 15-under-par 87 points as of 3 p.m. yesterday.

Neri fired 33 points in the Stableford Scoring System and got a huge lift from Balangauan, who only recently resumed playing after a few years absence from golf, shooting a whopping 54 points or 18-under-par.

The scoring format awards six points for a net double-eagle, five for an ace, four for eagle, three for birdie, two for par, and one for bogey.

Two teams are tied for the second spot with 83 points apiece.

Jojo Alquizola made 39 points while his partner Calvin Serion had 44. The other team with 83 points was composed of Charlie Go (45) and Guilbert Purcia (38).

The tournament, which is the signature event of CCC, requires a team to be composed of a member and a guest.

Two more teams are one point further back. Noel Ybañez (38) teamed up with Peter Militante (44) while Jojo Flordeliz (42) paired off with Joey Villarosa (40).

Scoring 81 points on the first day was the tandem of Jack Limyutian (43) and Alberto Solis (38).

The Coral Invitational is a four-day, 36-hole tournament.

Rounding up the provisional top ten were four teams with 80 points apiece.

These were Jack Jamero and Jepthe Romea, Wally Lim and Freddie Salimbangon, Lor Alaan and Edwin Espina, and Axel Alazas and Christian Selleger.

In the seniors’ category, the tandem of Koichi Horii and Akio Ueda is the runaway leader with 82 points. Horii fired 39 while Ueda made 43.

At second was the team of Cito Ugarte (41) and Beau Bachmann (30) with 71 points.

Rounding up the top three for the category of teams with total ages of 120 years old, were the teams of Ben Tio (34) and Roger Lo (35) and that of Shigeo Saito (31) and Yuichi Endo (38) with 69 points each.

A Chevrolet Cruze from Genesis Motors, a Sony 40-inch TV from Sony Centre Ayala, and a Wilson golf set from Ws Sports are at stake for an ace on all par-3 holes. An additional prize for an ace on hole number 5 is a set of Titleist irons from Dynamic Sports and on hole No. 15, a set of Cobra irons from the same sponsor. (FREEMAN)