Pizarro, Carlos, 11, claim berths in Samsung putting

Club president Danny Pizarro and 11-year-old internationalist Jobim Carlos led the 10 division winners who gained finals tickets in the third elimination’s leg of the Samsung Putting Challenge recently at the Riviera Golf and Country Club in Silang Cavite.

Carlos upstaged the older participants with the low score of 14 putts as one of the two junior division winners while Pizarro had 18 that gave him one of the seniors slots in the weekend competitions at Riviera’s practice green.

Gene Bondoc matched the 14 strokes of Carlos to be among the four men’s division qualifiers that also included Bobby Celestino (15), Jason Gironella (17) and Lee Myeong Yong (18). Also clinching slots were senior player John Camping (16), jungolfer Lee Ho In (15) and ladies Carmelette Villaroman (16) and Juvy Matsumoto (19).

The three-in-one event dubbed as the Samsung DigitAll Golf Challenge is also sponsored by TaylorMade Adidas, Gatorade, Maxfli, Fila, Custom Clubmakers, and Hotshots Flame-Grilled Burgers. Wave 89.1, City Lite 88.3, 103. 5 K-Lite, Magic 89.9, KillerBee and 99.5 RT are radio partners.

World jungolf champion Dottie Ardina, already a finalist, returned to get a step closer to win a brand new car and got it by scoring a hole-in-one.

Also scoring aces like the 8-year-old Ardina were Raymond Sangil, Chester Calpotura, Marites Martinez, Bondoc and Villaroman. They will join those who had earlier qualified from the previous two legs in Aguinaldo and Canlubang and the remaining legs in the finals where a hole-in-one will give them a car as a prize.