Southwoods storms ahead, leads by 21

BAGUIO — The Mizuno-DHL team stayed on but CAP-Southwoods stayed on track of its mission of winning the Championship Flight of the Fil division for the third straight year as the Carmona-based squad nearly matched its first round output of 134 at the short Baguio Country Club with a 133 to pull away from the field halfway through the Fil-Am men’s international amateur golf tournament yesterday.

While hostilities in the Am division at the longer Camp John Hay was interrupted by darkness which set in at 5:30 p.m., the breezy weather, drizzle and dusk failed to cool or even slow down the Southwoods bets at the BCC layout as they continued to dish out games expected of them to virtually put the outcome beyond doubt and somehow make their chief rivals from Mizuno reconsider what they had reconsidered the night before.

After a 134, the main squad of CAP-Southwoods put in a 133 as Jun Jun Plana, which didn’t count with a 29 Wednesday, came through with 37 points that further underscored the depth and talent of the most fancied team in the fold. Angelo Que, the top scorer with 38 points in the first round, had 34 while Artemio Murakami and Jerome Delariarte carded 32 and 30 points, respectively. Erwin Vinluan failed to count with a 27.

With a 36-hole aggregate of 267, CAP-Southwoods stormed to a 21-point lead over Mizuno-DHL’s 246 heading into the final 36 holes of the event at John Hay, a tough par-69 layout where challenges vary from hole-to-hole but where the Southwoods bets have a working knowledge which is expected to work to their advantage.

Mizuno-DHL had a mediocre 120 led by Gene Bondoc’s 34. Jay Bayron had a 30 while Mario Labajo and Marvin Dumandan had 29 and 27 points, respectively. Veteran Emilio Tuazon didn’t count with a 26.

Despite a 21-point cushion, Southwoods team manager Jeric Hechanova opted to downplay their chances in the event backed by Smart, Sony-Ericsson, College Assurance Plan, Eva Air and John Hay Poro Point Development Corp.

"It’s not a safe lead but it’s still a lead," said Hechanova, pointing to the 23-point advantage Southwoods nearly blew two years ago when it scrambled in the final round to nip Malacañang by one, thanks to Plana’s explosive windup where he birdied three of the last four holes to cushion Malacañang’s strong finish.

In the Am category where a disqualification led to another disqualification, CAP-Southwoods likewise poised itself to build a big cushion although play was halted on account of darkness with majority still to complete their rounds.

But based on the best four scores after nine holes, the Southwoods bets appearead to have the edge with Juami Rocha and Hanson So turning in 18 and 17 points, respectively.

Mizuno-DHL had a so-so aggregate after nine holes, including a 14 from Jolo Fernando, whose disqualification Wednesday nearly triggered a pullout from the very team which boasts of a roster talented enough to frustrate the three-peat bid of Southwoods.

Benny Gopez, after consulting with the members of the Mizuno squads Wednesday night, reconsidered his decision to pull his teams out of the tournament in the aftermath of the disqualification of Jojo Fernando, Mizuno’s top pointmaker in the Championship Flight of the Am division at John Hay, for signing a wrong scorecard. The error, which Gopez blamed on Southwoods’ Thirdy Escano, cost the team nine points as Mizuno fell farther back by 24 points to arch rival CAP-Southwoods after 18 holes.

But the deduction was actually restored before the start of the second round Thursday after Southwoods’ main scorer Lyndon Barril was found to have likewise made a wrong entry on his card Wednesday that also led to his disqualification.