Jerome solid all the way, leads match play cast

SILANG, Cavite — For Jerome Delariarte, winning golf tournaments begins with a good start. For the rest of the qualifiers, the real battle only begins today.

Delariarte scored an expected romp in the qualifying round of the Philippine Amateur Golf Championship, carding a second straight 72 yesterday as he led the 32 hopefuls into the tournament proper at the Langer Course of the Riviera golf complex here.

While the rest played just well enough to make the grade in another punishing day here, Delariarte again dished out an otherwise solid game which he hopes will give him the motivation as he guns for a second straight crown in the country’s most prestigious amateur crown.

Birdies on Nos. 4 and 11 gave the 24-year-old Southwoods hotshot a two-under card until a bogey (No. 12) and a double-bogey (No. 15) mishap slowed down his bid to register the tournament’s first-under par round.

He wound up with a 38 and closed out the 36-hole elims with a 144, two over par at the challenging par-71 layout but four strokes better than the 148 put in by ex-pro Dave Hernandez, who snatched the No. 2 ranking with a 74.

Their scores — and efforts — however will be not be carried through the next rounds as the tournament format shifts from stroke to match where fortunes are expected to change in any given day.

And the big guns are all accounted for, including Juvic Pagunsan, who carded a so-so 79 in the first round but fought back with a 75 to clinch the No. 6 place behind Marvin Dumandan (76-153), Raymund Sangil (78-153) and Laurence Negrido (75-153).

Veteran Tommy Manotoc, who checked in second behind Delariarte after 18 holes with a 73, fumbled with an 83 but made it to the next round just the same at No. 10 with a 156, the same output put in by DHL Open runaway winner Abe Rosal in this event sponsored by DHL, the Philippine Sports Commision, WWWExpress and DHL Worldwide.

The cut-off score was pegged at a high 161 total with Jonard Rates grabbing the 32nd spot despite turning in atrocious rounds of 79 and 82 at the hazard-laden course which hosted the Philippine Open in 1999.

But he will have his hands full in the match play today as Rates plays the top-seeded Delariarte in one of the featured matches with Pagunsan taking on Jose Mari Hechanova. Other matches pit Erwin Vinluan against Hanson So, Jr.; JR Tanpinco against Ronnie Torrecampo; Sangil vs Yoyong Velez and Dumandan against Yaye Escudero.

Hernandez takes on former national team mainstay Boyet Saragoza; Murakami colliding with IG Gutierrez; Jay Bayron tangling with Mark Vijar; Abe Rosal playing Michael Bibat; and Manotoc clashing with King Stehmeier.