The Barons opened defense of the first of their twin crowns with 252 as Luigi Yulo fueled Canlubang’s early charge to an 11-point edge while veterans Rolly Viray, Tommy Manotoc, skipper Tony Olives and balikbayan Lino Magpantay rode the late-afternoon fightback of Luisita, which had 246.
The Laguna squad leaned on a balanced scoring on the old hazard-laden Del Monte layout for that six-point spread which could serve as cushion in the final day shootout at the rolling Pueblo de Oro course today.
Manila Southwoods also made an impact in the round with 242 with Korean Jeong Tae Hur – the club’s senior club champion two years ago – firing the day’s best 55 points – one-under par 71 in medal play.
Viray, 57, who had the rare distinction of owning the national amateur and senior titles, topscored for the Barons with 52 points while Manotoc, losing a four-under par card in the first seven holes, Yulo and Olives put in 51 card apiece. Magpantay came through with 47.
Luisita kept it close in the end with a late surge through mainstays Iggy Clavecilla, with a team best 53 and Francis Gaston, another former amateur and senior titlist, who had a 51.
The 12-time Interclub champ could only draw 49 points from American Tom Culligan, the former RP Open low amateur, 48 from Freddie Mendoza and 45 from PSC commissioner Richie Garcia.
"Overall we’re okay because we expected balanced scoring from the team. It’s a very good lead because of the conditions of Del Monte and we hope to duplicate this tomorrow," said Olives.
Former RP senior player Bing Bunye (45), Baxo Adriano ( 44) and Dan Patalot didn’t count for Canlubang while King Sumulong ( 41) Bong De Guzman ( 37) and Cesar Muñoz (53) also failed to score for Luisita.
Alabang was at fourth place with 237 followed by Negros 231 and Manila Golf Club 228.
Meanwhile, Aguinaldo rallied from six points down at the start of the round and assembled a division best of 222 to claim the Friendship crown at Pueblo.
The EDSA-based squad pooled a 36-hole aggregate of 436 to win by 15 points over Iligan and Lanang as Dante Tejada came through with 49 points in Molave system to be Aguinaldo’s top man in the day. He was backed up by Col. Ben Liclican (46), Frank Manalo (44), Manuel Domingo (42) and Glykes Sua (41).
Iligan and first day leader Lanang submitted identical 421 cards but Iligan took the runner-up honors with a better score on its sixth man in the tiebreak.
Iligan had 220 against Lanang’s 201 and clinched second place with sixth man Arturo Samson firing 39 points. The five scorers for Iligan were Melanio Siao (47), Miguelito Valdez (46), Adlai Monzon (45), Macario Valdez (44) and Jose Rosedo (40).
Lanang, which claimed the event’s first hole-in-one through Victor Gonzales, could only lean on the 44 of Manny Tan, 41 of Jimmie Testado and Oscar Lopez, 39 of Gonzales and 36 of Butch Santillan with Wilfredo Diaz being the sixth man with 35.
A close finish is shaping up in the Founders Class with Cebu Country Club leading by a single point over Camp Evangelista (233-232) and three over Wack Wack (230) in the first day of action at Del Monte.
Japanese Roichi Horii topscored for the Cebu team with 49 points followed by Masaya Hishida, another Japanese, and Ed Ong with a couple of 47s. Nasatsugu Ochiai, the third Japanese in the cast, and Efren Sarmiento added 45 each.
Action Asia, Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, Callaway Golf, 105.1 Crossover, GE Aviation, GECAS, Mizuno, People Asia and Royal Caribbean are the tournament’s major sponsors.
Business Mirror, Fortune Tobacco, GMA 7, Honda Cars Davao, Premier Wine & Spirits, www.inquirer.net and Radio Mindanao Network, whose local station here DXCC is currently celebrating its 55th anniversary, are the corporate sponsors..
Century Park Hotel, C-Lium Fibre, Foreign Post, Lufthansa Technik Philippines and What’s On & Expat Communications are the other backers.