Que stays right on track

GEN. TRIAS, Cavite — Angelo Que inched closer to matching a 30-year-old record after he swept past his two opponents yesterday to reach the semifinals of the Philippine Amateur golf championship for the third straight time at the Eagle Ridge Golf and Country Club here.

Que held off the challenge of Jun Bernis with a 4 and 3 decision in the morning round-of-16 then completed his domination of Canlubang bets by disposing of Southeast Asian Games hero Juvic Pagunsan, 6 and 5, in the afternoon matches.

Que guns for his third straight trip to the finals against longshot Godofredo Sinfuego starting at 7:30 a.m. today.

Sinfuego, an ex-caddie from Iloilo, first downed Hanson So, 1-up, then cut short the winning run of jungolfer Judson Eustaquio with a 3 and 2 decision in the quarterfinals.

Earlier, Eustaquio hacked out the biggest reversal of the tourney sponsored chiefly by DHL Philippines and Wide Wide World Express with the support of Mitsubishi Motors Philippines, Inc. and the Philippine Sports Commission as he eliminated second seed Marlon Dizon, 4 and 3.

JR Tanpinco goes up against eliminations topnotcher Jerome Delariarte in the other semis encounter.

Tanpinco, the young Negrense who had helped Canlubang achieve a historic victory in the recent PAL Interclub, went through a pair of thrillers, the first going all the way to the final hole and the second getting into a sudden-death playoff.

He earned a crack at Delariarte after he scored a stunning reversal in his duel with national training pool member Cookie LaO (1-up) only hours after disposing of Jun Jun Plana, 1-up after 19 holes.

While he had an easy time getting past Gene Bondoc in the round-of-16, Delariarte barely survived the upset axe from former winner Artemio Murakami. Delariarte was two down after 14 holes, won the 16th and 17th to wrest the upperhand before Murakami forged the playoff by taking the 18th with a birdie.

Delariarte birdied the playoff hole to keep his hopes of reaching the finals for the second time in three years alive.

"Juvic (Pagunsan) didn’t really play well today. It was too late for him to find out that something was wrong with his driver," said Que, who was already five-up after nine holes.