Ababa, Echavez coast to 5-stroke win

DAVAO, Philippines – Edgar Ababa ended a 13-year title drought as he teamed up with amateur Paul Echavez to rule the first P1 million Davao National Pro-am co-presented by Samsung and Emcor via a five-shot romp at the Apo Golf and Country Club course here.

Ababa and Echavez, who call the Apo layout their home, turned in their second one-over 73 in three days to assemble a 54-hole aggregate of 218 under the alternate-shot format event.

“We knew the course very well and it gave us a lot of confidence,” said Ababa, who won his only title as a pro in the 1997 Epson Classic at Alabang.

Ababa and Echavez finished five strokes ahead of the semi-retired Dan Cruz and national pool member Jerson Balasabas who submitted the day’s best round of 72 for solo second place at 223.

Dante Torres and Alejandro Saban, the first round leaders, finished solo third at 224 after a 77 in the tournament which marked Samsung’s return to local pro golf.

Celso Villegas, president and COO of Emcor, said they will exhaust all possible means to make the pro-am an annual competition. He credited the support of Kawasaki, Tri-com, BCLN Golf, LVL Construction, Malayan Insurance, Allegoiance Cargo, Edcon, Mega Joy Trading, Aldwin Oriental Graphics, Canon, Tran World Brokerage Corp., Cargo Serve, MDR, Banbros, Goetz and MSI-ECS for making the inaugural edition possible.

The 45-year-old Ababa took home P172,000 as the winning pro while Echavez, a 22-year-old member of the ICTSI-Cangolf squad, went home with P20,000 worth of merchandise.

Cruz, a teaching pro at Eagle Ridge, took the runner-up prize of P160,000.

Completing the Top 10 were Edwin Sanchez-Art Arbole (75) and Severiano Bisera-Dante Becierra (73) who were tied at 224, Elmer Saban-Gen Nagai (77), Tonyt Fernando-Larry Pasqual (75) at 226, Buboy Jaraula-Clyde Mondilla (78) at 227 and Moon Sik Choi-Sonny Boy Gialon (76), Rudy Ardimer-Ronnie Sangumba (74), Jay Bayron-Etrone Alimar (73) at 228.